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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DD0D4E4E531 



EXPERIENCES 

OF A BOY 



hro^n^yJ^' 



By His Father's Son 



Baker Printing Co. 

Newark, N. J. 

1910 



-:2 



Copyright, 1910 ^j 

by ^r 

E, F. HARTSHORN 



©CIA273896 



Experiences of a Boy, 



CHAPTER I. 

On the 19th day of October, 1843, during the 
cannonading celebrating the anniversary of Lord 
CornwalHs' surrender, a man-child was born on 
Recluse Farm, only a short distance from Nor- 
folk, Va. He was a pretty child, so the mother, 
father and others agreed. Red of face, little or 
no hair, with a voice that could be heard in com- 
manding tones, demanding the attention due to 
a new arrival on the sphere of active life. As the 
years flew past, this autocrat developed the usual 
attributes of a pugnacious youth. His light hair 
became curly; that is, when an older sister care- 
fully manipulated it with curl papers on the top of 
his head. The old negro mammy stated decidedly 
that "He would sure be president of dis United 
States," and when the child would go to her with 
earache, how carefully she would cook a hot pone 
cake and tenderly bind it over the offending mem- 
ber. 



Memory does not serve in recording but a few 
events of this child's growth. He remembers 
looking out of the window one day, during a 
thunder storm, and seeing a bolt of lightning 
strike a large tree in the yard, stripping it of all 
its branches, and leaving a bare pole instead of its 
wide spread of foliage. Such a manifestation of 
nature's force was not fathomable to the infantile 
mind ; but curiosity was excited and many ques- 
tions asked that bothered the parents to answer. 
The questions of childhood often do not receive 
the attention that they deserve, and many a prob- 
lem has to be solved by the actual experience of 
the future life. 

Across the Elizabeth River was thrown a 
bridge by a brickmaker to carry finished product 
for piling. The heavy planks on this bridge were 
not nailed down, as the structure was temporary. 
The boy's mother had bid him never to go on 
this structure, as it was considered dangerous ; but 
one day there was a boat race on the river and the 
bridge seemed a better place than the banks to 
observe the contest; therefore, during the excite- 
ment, the admonition was forgotten. The boats 
were coming down in good shape when, to get a 
better view, the boy walked to the end of one of 
the planks. Immediately it tipped up and let the 
boy down with a plunge into the water. He 
always maintained that the first effect of the 



descent was seeing the devil. He then lost con- 
sciousness and only remembers being pulled out 
on the bank by a negro woman, then running 
home and through a long entry to the upstairs 
room of his mother, who was enjoying her after- 
noon siesta. Expecting sympathy, he told of his 
plunge in the river, when off came the slipper and 
it was applied with vigor to the proper place. 
This is the only whipping he remembers to have 
received in childhood, and always thought he 
should have been coddled instead of being pun- 
ished. His narrow escape from drowning ap- 
peared to him a sufficient excuse for disobedience. 
The philosophy of children does not always agree 
with the reasoning of their parents. 

The parents of this promising youth moved in 
three years to Winton, N. C, where outdoor life 
was the rule. He well remembers many youthful 
escapades and tribulations occurring in that place. 
The family had a pet cat that was a general 
favorite. This cat excited the cupidity of a boy 
chum who wanted possession. Various trades 
were suggested; but none successful until the 
chum offered in exchange a bag of chinquapins. 
These looked good and the transaction was closed, 
that is, until the sisters missed the cat, w^hen ex- 
planations were in order. The chinquapins were 
eaten. The cat returned and all was serene. This 
first trade showed the futility of closing a deal 



for property not owned. In future life, the 
modern trust methods showed how such transac- 
tions could be carried through without imposing 
a too severe strain on the moral attributes. 

It is customary in this part of the country for 
the owners of pigs to allow them to run wild in 
the woods, hunting for their food. There would 
be a grand round-up once in a year and the dif- 
ferent owners would brand their mark on individ- 
ual holdings. One such round-up occurred when 
our infant was clothed in short frocks. He no- 
ticed the excitement of the drive and entered into 
it with all fervor possible. Pigs running this way 
and that. Busy men rushing here and there amid 
the squealing mass, all made up a scene of in- 
terest, especially to our friend. He yelled and 
rushed around, feeling elated and enthused to the 
top notch of enjoyment. To his mind pigs were 
pigs; but unfortunately he lacked possession. 
Personal ownership was what he desired and it 
had always been his way to ask for what he 
coveted, therefore, he sang out that he wanted 
one of the pigs. Immediately a tall hoosier 
standing near him said, "You can have any pig 
that you can catch." The words were hardly out 
of his mouth when the infant grabbed a large 
shoat around the neck and was off on his back, 
under the fences, through the brambles and briers, 
at the highest speed of the pig. The pig was mus- 



cular and a good runner; but the baby held on 
until there remained not a vestige of clothing on 
his body. All full of scratches, he, glowing with 
the spirit of ownership, kept his grip until the pig 
fell exhausted ; then willing hands lifted the baby 
and others toted the pig in triumph to the home 
of our friend. 

Amongst the possessions of the family were 
four dogs named Ino, Youno, Jackson and Tyler. 
The first two were named after heavenly constel- 
lations. One of the big village boys met our 
friend and asked the names of the dogs. The 
baby repeated the names, Ino, Youno, Jackson 
and Tyler. The boy, exasperated, stated there 
were four dogs and he was given the names of 
only two, and demanded again the names, when 
the baby in his innocence repeated, Ino, Youno, 
Jackson and Tyler, with the result that the bad 
boy sprang forward to box his ears when the 
opportune approach of an older brother prevented 
the punishment undeserved. 

In the winter time a school was held in a log 
schoolhouse quite a distance from our youth's 
home, and when about five years old he started, 
with a lunch, to acquire book knowledge. The 
master was an Irishman with a pronounced 
brogue, and his method of teaching produced an 
effect on our friend that rather inclined him to be 
opposed to improving his mentality through such 



methods. The teacher had the only chair in the 
schoolhouse. All the scholars sat on backless 
seats raised sufficiently high by logs of wood. Our 
boy remembers that the principal instruction 
seemed to be in Grammar and the parsing be- 
came extremely tiresome. It seemed to be a con- 
tinual repetition of "I love, you love, thou lovest." 
It seemed foolish to our boy and he resented such 
and thought playing in the open would be more 
sensible. Grammar was for the older scholars. 
For our boy, the youngest, the alphabet was the 
stumbling block. At intervals from grammar, 
our friend was called up and, standing between 
the knees of the seated teacher, was asked what 
was letter A, for instance. The answer would as 
likely be C or any other letter. The result would 
be that the teacher would snap his thumb sharply 
against the head of our boy, using the same snap 
that boys use in playing marbles. It was not con- 
ducive to perfect confidence, this continually be- 
ing thumped on the head just because the boy did 
not know the foolish combination called an alpha- 
bet. The teacher made a practice of bringing 
down his old shirts from which he made a cushion 
to his seat. One of the bad boys bent a pin so 
that when in position it would project upwards 
from this cushion. The teacher, returning to his 
seat, sat down heavily and immediately arose so 
suddenly as to upset his table, uttering words 



expressive of rage and condemnation of the per- 
son playing the trick upon him. His speech in- 
cluded some words found in the Bible, combined, 
however, in a different manner, so that they 
sounded awful. We all thought if he could have 
found the culprit the punishment would have been 
very severe. As it was, all suffered more or less 
during the rest of the day; but satisfaction was 
noticed in the many sly glances between the schol- 
ars. In the school room was a large fireplace, six 
or eight feet wide, on one side of the room. 
Around this fire, on cold days, the scholars would 
assemble, and as our boy was small, he was kept 
back in the rear to suffer w^ith cold. On the whole, 
this school does not stand out favorably in mem- 
ory. The only pleasant thing was on clear, warm 
days eating lunch under the large, noble forest 
trees, and thinking of the many grand things that 
he would do when grown up. 



CHAPTER II. 

The sojourn was not for a very long period in 
Winton, not much over two years; then a move 
of importance was undertaken. The father had 
gone overland to Massachusetts. At that date 
the journey had to be made by stages. An uncle 
had directed one of his schooners, that was used 
to ship ice to the Southern states, to stop and 



10 

take the whole family, with all baggage, to Bos- 
ton. Then started one of the first sea voyages of 
our friend. Altho the schooner had taken a 
load of ice South, none remained aboard during 
the Northern voyage. It was very warm and the 
butter was like soup. Many of the modern deli- 
cacies, now practical on account of cold storage, 
w^ere absent, milk amongst the rest. Altho there 
were many discomforts, the grand sea air and the 
many novelties both of sea life and the birds, made 
the passage one of enjoyment. The winds were 
light, but favorable, until the schooner got south 
of Cape Cod, when it was becalmed close to land. 
The captain had a farm nearby on the Cape, so 
he concluded that during the calm it would be a 
good scheme to go ashore and see how his crops 
were getting along. Therefore, he had the 
schooner's boat lowered and with one man went 
ashore. The schooner rolled at anchor until the 
edge of dusk, when one of those squalls that the 
coast is noted for came speeding in from the sea. 
It was necessary to get off shore to save the ves- 
sel. The absence of the captain and one man 
made the crew very short-handed. After knowl- 
edge made plain to the boy the operations neces- 
sary. The anchor was hove short, that is, the 
windlass was worked until the anchor just rested 
on the bottom. The jib was run up and the 
wheel was manned ; but before we could sail away 



II 



it was necessary to light the binnacle light to see 
the compass. The boy went down in the cabin 
while the mate, with flint and steel, proceeded to 
get a light. Rain had come with the squall and 
the mate had a big southwester on his head. 
After awhile he got a glow and while bending 
over to notice the burning, the water from his 
southwester ran down on the tinder and put it 
out of business. Then Bible words flew thick and 
fast that seemed to match the lightning that w^as 
playing around the vessel. Fresh tinder, how- 
ever, was procured and then a successful light pro- 
duced. The anchor got off the ground and the 
vessel was run off shore. During the night the 
wind changed and we ran back to our starting 
point, where we arrived as the day was breaking. 
We found the captain on the beach nearly crazy. 
He knew that he had committed a great error in 
leaving the vessel and showed abject terror to the 
boy's mother, fearing that she would report the 
event to the uncle, which she eventually promised 
not to do. 

The family located in Dover, Mass., where 
school duties occupied the attention of our youth. 
There was a great contrast between this school 
and the old log house in North Carolina ; but still 
a long way from the modern school. There was 
a block of wood in one corner, on which some 
culprit called a dunce would occasionally mount. 



12 



Unusual punishments were indulged in, some of 
them far from civilized. The alphabet, which 
was a mystery in Winton, was here mastered and 
rapid advances were made in other studies. Still 
the boy enjoyed out of doors the most. A farmer 
met the father one day and stated if he would 
send one of his boys to his farm, he could spend 
the vacation in playing with his boy. Our youth 
heard the offer and volunteered to represent the 
family. So the next day he got into the stage and 
arrived at the farmer's house just at supper time. 
He got acquainted with the farmer's boy and 
slept in the same bed with him. Early the next 
day they turned out, had breakfast, and the two 
boys started for a field where they started in to 
throw stones to a big outcropping rock. Our boy 
enjoyed what he thought was sport until tiring, 
he suggested playing some other game; but the 
farmer's boy stated that they would have to keep 
piling the stones until the dinner horn sounded. 
Our boy objected and started for the house where 
he waited around until the men returned from 
work. Dinner being over, our boy stated that he 
would take the next stage for home, which he did 
and ever remembered the event as an attempt on 
the part of the old farmer to get extra assistance 
on the farm. Such actions explain the reason 
that causes boys to desert the farms and fill up 
the cities. Labor and nothing but labor is not 



13 

satisfactory to growing boys. The old saying, 
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," 
holds good. Farm work must be conducted on 
sane principles to encourage the energies of the 
youth of the land. 

The boy was growing fast and sturdy. The 
parents soon moved to North Beverly, Mass., 
where the uncles housed ice from Wenham Lake 
to supply the Southern market. It was a beautiful 
spread of water in the summer and in winter the 
hundreds of men planing, cutting, and hooking 
the large cakes of ice up the inclined runways to 
the huge buildings where it was stored made a 
lively scene very thrilling to our boy, who had 
nothing to do but roam around and listen to the 
various stories told about the green Irish laborers 
that did the work. These men were just over 
and could not talk English. They conversed en- 
tirely in Celtic. All directions were given to them 
by motions. It was comical to see these quick- 
witted fellows understand these motions at times 
and go entirely contrary to directions when they 
chose to misunderstand them. Smoking around 
the ice houses was strictly forbidden. One morn- 
ing it w^as noticed that every man hooking ice up 
the long inclines had a dudeen in his mouth. One 
of the foremen grasped a lath and springing on 
the runway slid rapidly down striking right and 
left at the pipes much to the surprise of the men 



14 

who stood dazed with only the stems between 
their teeth. 

These events continued until the parents moved 
to Dan vers, Mass., occupying a large house in 
the village. The boy well remembers seeing a 
well-stored peddler's wagon drive up to the house 
one day. The peddler brought to view and showed 
the mother a round bulb glass fluid lamp, stem 
and foot also of glass. He told the mother that 
they would not break, and to prove the case he 
took a nail out of his pocket, driving it securely 
into the porch, using the lamp as a hammer. Lamp 
breakage was a serious matter, so the mother 
bought a dozen of these unbreakable lamps. They 
were placed back in an unfinished lean-to and the 
mother went elsewhere. The boy, thinking he 
could do that which he saw the peddler do, got 
a nail and broke every one of these lamps in try- 
ing to drive it into the woodwork. He did not 
possess the sleight of hand of the peddler. The 
mother learned that she had been fooled; but 
memory does not record whether or no the boy 
got a deserved spanking. 

This boy, when very young, was impressed 
with the idea that he should become a pirate. 
With education the piratical idea was overruled, 
and then he became possessed with the wish to 
go to sea. He even thought of running away to 
join a ship. At last he mentioned his consuming 



15 

wish to his kind father, who did not advance any 
objections; but rephed that he knew the mate of 
a Cahfornia cHpper lying at Tea Wharf to whom 
he would introduce him, so that he could go as 
cabin boy. The boy was highly elated, and when 
in a few days the father told him to get ready to 
see the mate, he was overjoyed. They soon ar- 
rived at the ship and mounting the steep shore 
plank, found themselves on the lofty deck. The 
father spoke to a man he met, remarking that this 
was the lad he had brought to be shipped. The 
mate, for it was he, sprang forward with his fists 
clenched as if to strike the boy who dodged back, 
when the mate sang out, ''What are you dodging 
for : All cabin boys have to be knocked down a 
number of times every day; that is the regular 
rule aboard ship, and I only wanted to initiate 
you in sea life." The boy sang out, 'T do not 
want to be struck," and told the father that he did 
not like the mate anyway and would not ship. So 
he went home contented. It was a number of 
years before he got it into his head that his father 
had put up this job to get him out of the idea 
of going to sea. The ruse was a success for many 
years. 

The education proceeded apace. The boy got 
into fractions and in the rest of the studies kept 
abreast. The teachers were far from the best, 
showing preferences and partiality. One of the 



i6 

young woman teachers immediately over our boy 
was in love with the male principal, and she 
showed her feelings whenever the male teacher 
came in the classf room. One day when the boy 
was intently engaged doing a sum on his slate, 
he was evidently called upon, but did not hear. 
He was brought to attention by a command to go 
to the stove and see if there was a rat in it. The 
evident intention was to make sport of the boy in 
the presence of the principal. It was summer 
time and the stove was full of loose papers. The 
boy got up insulted and told the teacher that she 
could hunt rats herself, gathered his books to- 
gether and left the school, never to return. In the 
evening he told his father that he had had enough 
of such teaching, preferring to go to work. His 
father, one of the best of men, got his brother, 
who at that time was a cotton broker in the large, 
to take the boy in his office. This departure as 
office boy, before the age of fourteen, was gladly 
accepted and the few duties were performed con- 
scientiously under the munificent salary of two 
dollars a week. The porter of this establishment 
was an Irishman, John Scott by name. He was 
without education, could not read in fact; but a 
true servant of the house. One day John stated 
to the boy that he did not like, in going to the 
wharf for samples, to sign a cross instead of his 
name, and asked if he could not learn to sign his 



17 

name. He was told that it was quite possible. 
Therefore, a big sheet of paper was produced 
and the boy wrote the name John Scott at the top 
in large, boyish script. John Scott came down 
the next morning looking peaked, and showed the 
sheet with a repetition of the name covering the 
whole paper. The first copies were cramped and 
laborious, but gradually got better until the latter 
signatures were even better than the copy. The 
man was happy for now he was a man amongst 
men, proud of his ability to sign his name. He 
continued with lessons every night from the dic- 
tionary, until he educated himself broadly, and 
on the death of the uncle became a partner 
in the business with the uncle's son. The uncle 
was a good man, but not exact in business mat- 
ters, especially in paying the boy's salary. It was 
urged that this payment should take the regular 
course, by placing the name on the office pay-roll ; 
but the uncle objected, stating that he would at- 
tend to the matter. The payments would lapse 
six, eight or ten weeks at a time, altho when at- 
tention was called to the matter the money was 
forthcoming. This irregularity in payment, also 
the slight duties, produced discontent and resulted 
in the boy throwing up the job. 

The next position was office boy with Mr. Mar- 
tin, a stock broker. This man was an honorable, 
thoroughly honest dealer, who would recommend 



i8 

his customers to do with their money the same 
that he would do with his. He was writing a 
book called ''Twenty-one Years in the New York 
Stock Market," a statistical work with a great 
mass of figures, and it was a great pleasure to the 
boy to be called upon to run up the columns of 
figures to prove them. During the time at this 
oflfice came the great financial panic of 1857 ^^ 
'58. It came on suddenly without any great pre- 
monitions. One day a gentleman called and 
asked Mr. Martin if he had any money on hand 
for personal use. Mr. Martin said no, and was 
advised to draw a check for ready cash. It was 
past banking hours, therefore a check was drawn 
to bearer for $10,000 and placed in the hands of 
the boy, with instructions to present it at the bank 
the first thing in the morning. That was a great 
responsibility and was thoroughly appreciated. 
To be trusted with such a large fortune caused 
almost a sleepless night. Although the check was 
placed under the pillow, the light was lighted sev- 
eral times at night and the check brought to view 
to see that it was positively safe. Early the next 
morning, before banking hours, the boy was on 
State street and found the street jammed with 
people all making for different banks. The boy 
wormed himself in amongst the people until he 
got up to the bank doors, when he noted, with 
consternation, a man tacking up a notice stating 



19 

that the bank would be closed until further notice. 
All the banks were closed up tight on that day and 
for many days thereafter. 

Mr. Martin handed to the boy one day negotia- 
ble securities to the amount of $30,000 to $40,000, 
with instructions to proceed to a certain part of 
the city inhabited by the very poor and many 
criminals, to get the signature of a man on them. 
He proceeded to the number indicated or rather 
the place for the number which did not appear. It 
was a very squalid neighborhood. Several 
drunken men were in sight and many dirty chil- 
dren. He asked an old woman, who was in a 
yard, fronting a rear building, for information. 
She said she thought a man by the name men- 
tioned lived upstairs in the front house, entrance 
from the rear. The boy proceeded to mount the 
rickety stairs, feeling that some mistake must 
have been made, as no man with the power to 
attest such valuable papers could possibly live in 
such a disreputable neighborhood. The stairs 
were dark and uncarpeted. At the top were two 
doors. One, at a hazard, was rapped upon and 
immediately a rough voice asked who was there. 
The boy cautiously stated, after asking if the 

owner of the voice was Mr. , and getting a 

favorable reply, that he was from Mr. Martin 
with a message. Immediately the door was un- 
locked and a bolt drawn, and there stood in the 



20 



dcMDrway a very old, withered man who gruffly 
bid entrance. The boy still hesitated, when the 
man noticing, took a letter from his table and 
handed the same to the boy who saw it was a 
letter to the man from Mr. Martin, stating that 
he would send the securities for signature during 
the day. That made the matter plain and the 
business was accomplished with a rough command 
to return to Martin quickly with the papers, which 
he was glad to do. 

A lady friend of the family, returning from 
Europe, presented our boy with one of the hats 
worn by the school children of the time in Eng- 
land. It was made of silk plush, like the ordinary 
tall silk hat ; but the top was round like the derby 
of the present day. The boy was very proud of 
this new head-gear. The next day he started 
from Maiden Centre over the Causeway, through 
Chelsea, for his business in Boston, distance five 
miles. He got over the Causeway safely, but in 
going through Chelsea the boys there were in- 
terested. With yells of "Twig that hat," they 
began to throw stones and other missiles, many of 
which struck the hat with the result of wrecking 
it to scarcely more than the brim. New and un- 
usual head-wear had very little attraction to him 
ever afterwards. 



CHAPTER III. 

Altho the duties in the stock broker's office were 
pleasant, late reading of the life of Benjamin 
Franklin had enthused him with the wish to fol- 
low in his footsteps. The more he thought over 
the matter the more determined he became to 
become a printer. With this idea uppermost, he 
applied and gained admission in the office of C. C. 
Mead, opposite the Old South Church. This was 
a very small office and he took hold with a vim, 
soon becoming conversant with the press and also 
able to do very well at the case. He became a 
great favorite with the proprietor who, with 
another man and our boy, constituted the whole 
working crew except occasional extra force. The 
proprietor was a great abolitionist and altho a 
professed teetotaler, he was proven to like his 
liquor in private. One day he told the boy to 
go quite a distance in the country and deliver a 
note to a certain party and bring back what was 
given to him. The directions were followed, 
which led down a long lane from the main road. 
The letter delivered, a package was placed in his 
hands and he started back; but boy-like, he cut 
across lots and in going over a fence fell, causing 
the package to burst open and a stopper flew out, 
disclosing the fact that the contents was whisky. 



The proprietor was not notified of the accident. 
He received the package with the remark that he 
was glad to get the hniment because it was so 
good to rub on his rheumatic leg. The boy re- 
mained silent, altho thinking that the liniment 
would be taken internally. This was a prohibi- 
tion state. 

The family moved to Boston and the father in 
1848 commenced the manufacture of shade rollers 
under a patent that the uncle had bought. This 
patent was found tO' be worthless. Then the 
father invented and manufactured a sliding spring 
shade roller. Mr. Bray brought suit for infringe- 
ment which was decided in favor of the father 
years afterwards. The family had meanwhile 
moved to New York. On Mr. Mead's being in- 
formed of the intended removal, he tried all he 
could to retain the boy, offering to give him a 
half interest in the business in one year and oth- 
erwise endeavored to impress him with the ad- 
visability of remaining in Boston; but the idea 
of a change to the great city of New York was 
overpowering, and, therefore, the old association 
with Mr. Mead was broken off. 

On arrival in New York the boy applied for a 
position in a printer's office on Broad street. In 
showing up what he could do he presented some 
copies of press work that he had perfected in 
Mead's office. The foreman denied the possibility 



23 

of such work being produced on a Gordon press; 
but the boy insisted that he could perform the 
work on any press. His talk produced a favorable 
impression and he commenced work the next day. 
The office got out a daily stock sheet that had to 
be prepared and printed within an hour every day 
at noon. Horace Greeley very often wrote a par- 
agraph for this sheet. The foreman was the only 
man in the office who could read Greeley's writ- 
ing and always set up the matter. One day he 
was sick and a paragraph came in from Greeley. 
There was great trouble in the office. The matter 
was important. The boy stepped forward and 
stated that he thought he could solve the diffi- 
culty. During the noon hours he had made a 
practice of comparing Greeley's copy with the re- 
sult of the foreman's interpretation. By this 
means he had got on Greeley's curves. The copy 
was passed over to the boy, who placed it in type 
and acquired great glory therefor. 

The boy transferred himself some time after- 
wards to the Scotch- American office where he 
was employed at the case. The boy attended 
chemical lectures in Cooper Union with great in- 
terest. He surrounded himself with chemicals 
and paraphernalia, going deeply into the study, 
graduating with a diploma which was highly 
prized. The family removed to Staten Island 
and the boy boarded in a house in New York. All 



24 

the other boarders were students in the New York 
Homoeopathic College. From association with 
them and from his chemical studies, it was nat- 
ural to consider the taking up of the study of med- 
icine. He soon became firm in the desire and the 
next year was set for commencing; but the war 
prevented. Meanwhile he attended, with the stu- 
dents, clinics at the Bellevue Hospital and saw 
many interesting operations. 

The best of fathers passed away a short time 
after arriving in New York. 



CHAPTER IV. 

During this time the trouble between the North 
and South was becoming acute. The disloyal 
abolitionists of the North, especially from Mas- 
sachusetts, kept up the excitement with the fire 
eaters of the South, especially from Georgia. The 
whole country took sides and the people were 
rushed into an unnatural war. It was noticed af- 
terwards that the parties who did the most toward 
producing the discord refrained from taking up 
arms, but remained safely in the rear while the 
people who had been urged forward shed their 
blood in a warfare that no one thought would 
cause a fraction of the devastation and death that 
afterwards developed. Altho the air was full of 
rumors of strife, many thought things would quiet 



25 

down until Fort Sumter was fired upon, then the 
God of War stepped forward and sounded to 
arms. The boy came of a pro-Southern family, 
whose animosity to the anti-slavery program was 
intense, still he could not content himself with 
the idea of belonging to a divided country. The 
whole United States was small enough for him. 
Firing upon the flag could not be condoned. That 
insult had to be wiped out. The boy belonged to 
a literary society made up of youths of his age. 
One night at a regular meeting appeared a man 
who was forming a company. He induced all the 
boys to enlist. They were provided with a very 
expensive uniform and became full members of 
the Manhattan Guards. They afterward found 
out that the company was fathered by the Man- 
hattan Gas Company who furnished the uniforms 
and that they were to be home guards. That did 
not suit the boy so he resigned and joined a new 
Company, I, of the 9th N. Y. Militia. The regi- 
ment had gone to the front and was then in 
Maryland. I Company had a distinctive Zouave 
uniform and was commanded by Capt. Claasen, 
a former drill sergeant of the 7th Militia. When 
the boy appeared home with his uniform on his 
mother was sorely perplexed and chided him for 
wishing to fight his friends; but the boy strongly 
asserted that as the flag had been fired upon he 
could not do otherwise than try to defend it. 



26 



When it was mentioned to the foreman of the 
Scotch-American that the boy had enhsted, he 
was referred to the editor who stated to him that 
he was a ''fule to becam' food for puder." It was 
a proud day when the boy marched, with his com- 
pany, down Broadway with the cheering populace 
and the brave music sounding gloriously on the 
summer air. 

The camp in Washington was on the same 
ground formerly occupied by the 7th Regiment 
during their three months' service. A short time 
after arrival occurred the first battle of Bull Run. 
The guns were heard in Washington. Orders 
came for the company to proceed to the Long 
Bridge to guard the same. While standing in 
line by the bridge, a general officer came up to 
the captain and demanded to know why the com- 
pany was in that position without arms. The 
captain replied that his company had come to 
Washington without arms and they had not been 
received as yet. ''Then return to your camp," 
ordered the officer. ''Men without arms are no 
good for guard duty." They returned to camp 
and in a short time received Springfield muskets. 
This affair only shows how crude the arrange- 
ments were in Washington. To send a company 
without arms to guard such an important place 
as Long Bridge seems the height of absurdity ; but 
such blunders were common during the early part 



of the war. It takes many months of active drill 
and service to make effective soldiers, when the 
officers are as green as the men. The battle of 
Bull Run was fought by green troops on both 
sides. The results might have been disastrous to 
the North if the Southern troops had been aware 
of their victory. Regular troops would have fol- 
lowed up the advantage and taken Washington. 

Some of the N. Y. Irish regiment that were in 
the early part of the engagement got to the camp 
of Company I in the evening, showing various 
claimed wounds on their legs that looked wonder- 
fully like the result of contact with briers and 
brush in their headlong retreat to the rear. The 
N. Y. Scotch regiment returned from the fight 
and made camp in the next field to the boy's com- 
pany. They threw down their arms with the de- 
mand that they be allowed to return to New 
York for the purpose of recruiting, as they had 
lost some men in the battle. In a short time a 
regular battery rumbled up from Washington. 
They looked business-like as they took position 
on the high ground overlooking the regiment. 
The guns were loaded with canister and the lan- 
yards in position, when the officer commanding 
pulled out his watch. He sang out, "You will 
have five minutes to take up your arms and form 
in line." A minute went past, no move. The 
same result with the second and third. Then a 



28^ 

wavering was observed, the men sprang to arms, 
and the insubordination was over. The men had 
learned there was power in the Government and 
that they could not decide for Uncle Sam what 
was best. The thorough manner and clockwork 
precision of the regular troops impressed all that 
witnessed the event. 

The captain of Company I was a perfect mas- 
ter of the manual of arms. He drilled the com- 
pany eight hours a day, four hours in the morn- 
ing and four hours in the afternoon. This was 
hard work, but soon hardened the men to the 
actual duties of war and they became extremely 
proficient, in fact, the best drilled company in 
the army. 

Orders were received to join the regiment en- 
camped near Hagerstown, Maryland. The cap- 
tain wanted to show off and when the company 
was near the regiment, ordered a fence taken 
down and in double quick time ran the men over 
a plowed field in company front. When the com- 
mand, "Halt," was given, the company was in 
perfect alignment, as though the move had been 
made over a floor. The applause was great and 
the new company became an honored part of the 
regiment. Drilling was kept up, gradually bring- 
ing the men down to seasoned veterans. General 
Banks, who was in command, called for a review 
of the division with the idea of selecting the best 



29 

drilled company for a special bodyguard. The 
boy's company was selected after a severe ^est of 
the force in battalion movements. Detached from 
the regiment, the company became part of head- 
quarters. There was a great deal of police duty, 
so-called, to perform, which consisted in cleaning 
up camp, digging sinks, etc. The men had to 
appear smart and wear white gloves when on 
duty. The general was a small man, and when 
he got into his boots looked a great part leather. 
One night the long roll beat and all sprang into 
line, started on a march, no man knowing where 
or whither. Soon getting into a rough country, 
the way was lost. Picking up a countryman as a 
guide, he was marched along with an officer on 
each side presenting drawn revolvers, and gov- 
erned by a threat that if he fooled the troops, im- 
mediate death would result. Toiling over the 
country nearly all night, early before daylight 
the next morning a halt was ordered, and the men 
dropped down to sleep in their tracks. When the 
boy awoke he rolled over and got water in his 
mouth. Rolling over the other way, water 
rushed again in his mouth. He then found 
that he was lying in a gully entirely filled 
with water that had come down in heavy 
showers during the time he had slept. 
After morning coffee the men proceeded on 
the march and came out at Ball's Bluff on the 



30 

Potomac River. A fight was in progress on the 
other side and balls from the enemy were falling 
into the river. It was a bad repulse for the 
Northern troops. A well-known Californian, 
Col. Baker, who had raised a regiment in that 
country, was killed. In the afternoon the com- 
pany was called into line, starting to march to a 
pontoon bridge that had been thrown across the 
river. The company was preceded by several 
regimentsi all marching grimly with stretcher 
bearers on each side. The head of the column 
got to the bridge, when on orders it was coun- 
termarched back. The battle was ended. Pre- 
viously Company I supported guns on the Mary- 
land side which remained unengaged. Some time 
afterwards an illustrated paper was received from 
New York showing the company in a fierce fight 
with the guns booming gloriously. The company 
shortly afterwards was relieved from duty at 
headquarters and returned to the regiment, where 
the ordinary life of camp followed. 

After awhile the company was sent to the Po- 
tomac on picket duty and the lonely watches of 
the night occupied the time there. There were a 
great many muskrats burrowed in the canal banks 
that bordered the river. These muskrats when 
they jumped in the water at night sounded won- 
drously like a man swimming, and many an anx- 
ious moment was spent, with finger on the trigger 



31 

of musket, peering into the darkness for a possi- 
ble enemy. While on picket duty the regiment 
was ordered on the advance into Virginia. The 
company had a teamster who was continually 
talking and blowing, therefore, the boys had 
named him "Windy," the only name he went by. 
It seems that when the regiment was ordered to 
march, Windy was detailed with instructions to 
the captain of Company I to leave picket and 
join the regiment then on the road. Windy got 
to the river long after dark. Orders had been 
given to fire on any light that appeared, as dis- 
loyal persons sometimes signalled across the river 
to the enemy. Windy had brought a lantern. 
The light appeared at the top of the high bluff 
leading to the river. Immediately on the sight 
of this light it was fired upon. The whole com- 
pany turned out and the fusilade was hot and 
furious. The men fired as fast as they could load. 
The light kept approaching, still receiving the fire 
of the company. At last a dead horse stumbled 
over the declivity and a man disentangled himself, 
holding the ring of a lantern, the rest having 
been shot away. The man sang out, "What in 
thunder and damnation did you fellows fire on me 
for, a courier from the commander of the forces?" 
Then we knew it was Windy. Every part of his 
clothing, including his shoes, was riddled with 
bullets, but not a scratch was upon his skin. It 



Z2 

was a miracle and he never forgot to tell that he 
was the first man of the regiment to be under fire. 

On joining the regiment the march was con- 
tinued until the bridge at Harper's Ferry was 
crossed. It came night and still the boys remained 
in line. The boy was out of coffee, but burned 
some hard tack and made a tin of stuff that passed 
for that beverage. After hours of delay the divi- 
sion started on the road to Charlestown, where 
John Brown was hanged some time before. It was 
a cold night, and after the long wait the men were 
all tired out and the boy went to sleep while still 
marching. The tramp, tramp of the men, close, 
shoulder to shoulder, produced a sleeping condi- 
tion that could not be overcome. When close to 
Charlestown he was awakened by the sharp crack 
of a rifle fired by one of our pickets that had been 
stationed there without information concerning 
the approaching soldiers. 

The regiment marched and countermarched for 
months, covering eighteen hundred miles in thir- 
teen months. One time they marched all day long 
from the Shenandoah Valley to the place called 
Aldea, twenty miles, and as soon as they got 
there were ordered back over the same road. This 
all day and all night march was too much and 
very few bivouacked early the next morning. The 
boy kept on to the front and fell down with the 
others when the command "Halt" was given. 



33 

Spreading out his rubber blanket on the ground, 
supperless, and spreading his woolen blanket over 
head and all, he dropped immediately into slum- 
ber. When reveille sounded, he sprang up into 
a sitting position and looked around in amaze- 
ment. During the early hours of the morning a 
heavy fall of snov^ had completely covered the 
sleeping soldiers, and as they aroused themselves, 
seemed to be coming from their graves. It was 
a weird and unforgettable sight. 

The regiment eventually got to Warrington, 
where it was provost guard. The boys occupied 
empty houses in the town. They remained in 
these houses until a great deal of sickness devel- 
oped and the surgeon ordered them into tents 
where the sick ones recovered and all felt much 
better. Guards were stationed on all the streets 
and ordered not to allow any of the inhabitants 
out after nine o'clock at night. One night, while 
the boy was on guard, a young woman came rush- 
ing up and tried to pass. Of course, she was 
stopped. She began to cry and stated that her 
mother was very sick and that she was going for 
a doctor. Altho contrary to orders, the boy 
passed the girl along to another sentry, being very 
pleased to see her return in a short time with the 
physician. 

One time I Company was drilling in the street 
before a house occupied by a Southern family. 



34 

Several young ladies were on the porch. The men 
were practicing the loading and firing movements. 
The orders came, ''take cartridge," *'bite cart- 
ridge." The men naturally had their hands on 
their mouths with the imaginary cartridges, the 
ladies following the men's movements, when the 
company with one accord smacked their lips and 
threw kisses at the spectators. The speed with 
which the ladies left the porch was noticeable. 
Such a Yankee trick was reprehensible. 

The boy got acquainted with a nice Southern 
family, and said to the lady one day that he should 
like very much, after sleeping on the hard ground 
for months, to experience one night's rest in a civ- 
ilized bed. A cordial invitation was given him to 
occupy one of several beds that were previously 
occupied by her sons, who were in the Confederate 
army. So that night the boy was reposing on a 
freshly made up and comfortable feather bed. The 
first sensation was one of satisfaction, but slumber 
would not come. The couch proved too warm 
and soft. He could not sleep. After tossing about 
for several hours he got up, made a pillow of his 
shoes and resting his head on them slept soundly 
on the floor until morning. Many events hap- 
pened in this town good enough to talk about, but 
not important enough to record in this narrative. 

After awhile the regiment was ordered forward 
to engage in an affair at White Sulphur Springs. 



35 

They remained in reserve, as it often happened, 
unfortunately the men thought. In this case the 
enemy scattered after a short skirmish. When 
the regiment left Warrington there remained in 
town several sick soldiers. A troop of bush- 
whackers came in town; but our boys had made 
such a good impression on the citizens during 
their occupation that they concealed the sick so 
they could not be molested. 



CHAPTER V. 

In a short time the regiment went into winter 
quarters. They built huts of logs, with canvas 
tops, and for about two months performed the 
humdrum duties of camp life. The boy was or- 
dered, with others, to march about eight miles 
on picket to perform two days' duty. The march 
was made at night and it was very cold. A good 
part of the country passed over had been slightly 
flooded and frozen over with a thin coat of ice. 
A very treacherous and tiresome tramp. They 
arrived just as morning was breaking. The boy 
noticed a thin column of smoke ascending from 
the chimney of the only log house in sight. He 
made for the door and asked the poor woman, 
who answered his knock, if she had any coffee. 
She said they had no regular coffee, but had some 
Southern coffee. Burnt rye was prepared and 



36 

the boy always insisted that it was the best cup 
of coffee he ever tasted. If you doubt his judg- 
ment, just place yourself under the same condi- 
tions, and with lifted cup of steaming hot fluid, 
well supplied with rich, fresh milk, your views 
will change to a unanimous agreement. 

At one time, while in winter quarters, flour was 
given to the troops as a ration. The men had to 
make their bread and bake it in hot ashes. The 
bread came out heavy because no rising was pro- 
vided. The men noticed with surprise that the 
boy's bread after baking was light and palatable. 
They could not understand why. The reason was 
that the lad would go to the surgeon for medicine 
to cure a supposed case of indigestion and would 
procure carbonate of soda as a remedy. This ar- 
ticle was used to raise the dough. The boy did 
not give the trick away, as he thought it would 
make too much of a demand on the surgeon's 
stores. 

In the early summer of 1862, there was a grand 
forward march of all the forces around Washing- 
ton to the front. ''On to Richmond" was the word. 
The regiment had gradually got back through 
Maryland to Washington, and started with the 
rest of the army. The event was heralded in all 
the public prints and many citizens and ladies 
accompanied the boys when they gaily marched 
forth. Many generous fellows had provided bar- 



37 

rels of beer and some stronger beverages to the 
marching lads. The natural result followed. 
Many of the boys got charged with exhilarating 
fluids, producing an effect foreign to the proper 
use of the legs; therefore, the grand army, after 
proceeding about two miles, concluded the day's 
work had better end and camps were formed. 
Better work was done in following days. The 
idea was apparently to take a position on the right 
of McClellan's army which was before Richmond 
on the James River. The army moved down oppo- 
site to Williamsburg on the Rappahannock River 
and laid in camp awaiting orders to pass over the 
pontoon bridge that had been thrown across. Day 
after day passed in inaction. One day the long 
roll was beat and the boys sprang to arms, think- 
ing the long delayed movement was at hand. The 
men were double-quicked over five miles in a sun 
that was scorching, arriving at last in a large 
clearing which they began to go around. It was 
apparent at once that only a review was intended. 
The indignity was resented. Loud words of re- 
sentment were heard down the line. Insubordi- 
nation was in evidence. The boy was in the first 
regiment and his position in the first company 
placed him near the head of the line. He noticed 
after proceeding some distance around the clear- 
ing a body of officers on the side and amongst 
them the tall ungainly figure of Abe Lincoln. 



38 

Soon he heard the clear voice of Old Abe say, "It 
seems to me foolish to bring out the troops on 
such a hot day merely to be looked at." That was 
sufficient, the sympathy of the loved Abe Lincoln. 
Immediately the word was passed down the line 
and every evidence of insubordination ceased. 
The boys braced themselves up and passed in re- 
view with the steady tramp of veteran troops. 

Evidently to prevent the joining of our forces 
to those of McClellan's, Jackson was ordered by 
the Southern general to make a raid up the Shen- 
andoah Valley, threatening Washington. The 
ruse succeeded. A large portion of the troops 
were ordered to head him off. They, including 
the regiment, were marched to Aquia Creek, 
where they embarked on the large steamboat Van- 
derbilt and started for Alexandria, up the Poto- 
mac River. The men were packed like sardines 
on this boat. The vessel proceeded nearly to 
Alexandria when it stuck. The draft of the ves- 
sel was too much, and the men were transferred 
by boats to the shore. The troops were marched 
alongside of cars. The trains were made up of 
passenger coaches and ordinary baggage cars. No 
selection could be made. The boys got aboard 
just as they marched up. The boy's company 
happened to get alongside of a baggage car and 
jumped in, completely filling it when standing 
fully equipped. They did not know the distance 



39 

they had to journey. The doors were locked and 
the cars started for the Shenandoah Valley, run- 
ning until broad daylight the next morning. The 
men bearing knapsacks, haversacks, canteens and 
muskets became exhausted during the night. They 
tumbled down on top of one another, and when 
the doors were opened in the morning two dead 
men were taken out, also many badly disabled. 
Only two of the force had command of all their 
limbs ; one of these was our boy. This movement 
prevented the raid being a success ; but the South- 
ern general had relieved his situation. 

The marching and countermarching com- 
menced again, with an occasional skirmish. One 
night the boy was on picket when the enemy felt 
lively. They kept up a continual fire on the picket 
line. The adjoining man on our boy's left was 
killed and the man on his right was badly 
wounded. The boy got homesick, and wanted 
badly to retire. To stand there in the opening 
during a dark night thinking how it w^ould feel to 
get ventilated in different parts of the body was 
far from lovely. The man who took the place of 
the one who was killed was noticed to march 
stolidly over his beat, free from any apparent emo- 
tion. The boy, on meeting, asked how he could 
be so indifferent, telling him his legs were cow- 
ardly and wabbling. The man replied that he did 
not care a damn as long as he had a good chew 



40 

of tobacco in his mouth. The boy then asked for 
a chew. The man produced a dirty bag of cut 
up plug from which the boy took a large mouth- 
ful. In a short time he would not have cared if 
he was shot or not. He became very sick, but 
kept up the use of tobacco for many years after- 
wards. 

The battle of Cedar Mountain occurred shortly 
afterward. The regiment was in reserve, as 
usual. The battle was hotly contested. At one 
period in the fight a large body of Northern forces 
stampeded down a sunken road. The boy saw an 
officer come up to the head of the fleeing crowd 
and shoot down two of the foremost, when the 
rest came to their senses. They returned to the 
fight. It was not a pleasant or reassuring sight to 
lie inactive and see the wounded brought in 
streams through the lines, not knowing when the 
orders would be given that would force the regi- 
ment in the thick of the fight. One cavalry man 
was noticed riding to the rear. His left leg was 
shot off above the knee. His blood was flowing 
away in a stream; but he did not seem to notice 
his loss. He sang out, "Go in, boys, and knock 
hell out of them. We have got them on the run.'* 
He then fell off his horse, dead. 

At last, just after early darkness, the regiment 
was ordered forward. They passed down a long 
road by two steep hills, one on either side. When 



41 

they got beyond, with a band composed mainly of 
Germans, playing martial music, a masked battery 
opened on the approaching regiment. To see that 
German band skedaddle was a sight never to be 
forgotten. They were not seen again for many 
days, and when they scattered back into camp the 
absence of tooting instruments was noticeable. In 
fact, there were only a few horns left, so they 
were discharged and the regiment depended on 
drums thereafter for their tramping music. 

When the fire opened two men got scared and 
fled from the company. Both men were imme- 
diately killed by the battery. They were the only 
loss, for in the darkness the battery could not see 
the men. The firing was entirely on the music, 
or the place where it was supposed to be. The 
guns soon limbered up and were off. The regi- 
ment marched on the field, but the battle was 
over. They lay in line of battle all that night on 
a ridge, hearing the enemy giving commands, but 
not knowing whether they were getting ready to 
attack again or not. At daylight, the next morn- 
ing, it was found that they had retreated and the 
division followed along after them. It was not 
a pleasant sight to pass on the road dead men and 
horses bloated by the hot sun largely beyond nat- 
ural size. 

The regiment gradually got back to Manassas 
Junction and marched south through Culpepper 



42 

Court House, eventually arriving at the Rapidan 
River. The enemy were scattered on the oppo- 
site shore. One day at general parade there was 
a strict order read to prevent any of the troops 
from swimming the Rapidan. Near by, on the 
other side, was a whisky distillery, making the 
liquor from corn. Some of the boys had found 
this out, and under the protection of darkness had 
got supplies. The order was the first intimation 
to the boy that such supplies were near. He never 
used liquor in any form ; but a positive order not 
to go, with the penalty mentioned of the guards 
being ordered to fire on any one disobeying, was 
irresistible. The next night he, in company of 
a tentmate, swam the river, returning each with 
a bottle of whisky. The guards began to fire. 
The balls sputtered into the water around, but 
not near the boys. They got to the bank, and as 
they were scrambling out the sergeant of the 
guard asked, "What have you got?" The boy 
handed him the bottle for answer. It was sam- 
pled and was passed from hand to hand. He 
never saw it again. 

The enemy appeared in force and began a fierce 
fire the next day with cannon and musketry. 
There was a call for one hundred men to per- 
form dangerous duty. The boy stepped forward, 
thinking that the officer was looking directly at 
him, which was not the fact. The men were 



43 

marched around back of a hill to a log house. The 
men entered and found it full of shovels and picks, 
with other engineering tools. They grabbed each 
according to his preference a shovel or pick and 
were quickly directed to an old earthwork that 
had been erected to face the other way. The or- 
ders were that the men were to jump into the 
ditch and on command were to leap to the top and 
cut down in spots openings for our guns. There 
was a positive sheet of shot, shell and bullets 
passing over the earthwork, and the men knew 
that no one could live working at the top. While 
huddled in the ditch awaiting the call to death, 
a regular artillery officer rode up and asked, 
*'What are the men there for?" The answer be- 
ing given, he ordered the men back to their regi- 
ment, stating that he would plant his guns to the 
rear and fire over the bank. This recall was the 
same as a reprieve of a death sentence. It shows 
how men were often slaughtered through the 
false judgment of incompetent officers. 

An overpowering force appearing, our guns 
were turned on a bridge to the left of position, 
destroying it just as the enemy were about to 
charge across. The cannonading continued from 
both sides. One of our batteries left the field 
with only a few men. The guns were all dis- 
mounted and most of the men killed. A retreat 
was ordered, which was kept up for many days. 



44 

The regiment occupied the post of honor — the 
rear guard. They were under artillery fire for 
nearly one month. To show how near our Con- 
federate friends stuck to our rear, the boy at- 
tempted to make some coffee one morning. He 
built his fire; the water got nearly hot, when 
round shot fell in our midst. Twice during the 
morning there was a repetition of this fun. Near 
noon-time the water got hot enough and just 
when the coffee was being placed in, a shell scat- 
tered the embers of the fire. This amusement was 
kept up until late at night, when the coffee was 
enjoyed. It can be imagined that the boys got 
down to skin and bone. Food was scarce and 
when obtained often there was no chance to eat. 

The army marched in retreat until near Manas- 
sas again, when the regiment was ordered to the 
left and got to Thoroughfare Gap in the Blue 
Ridge mountains. They found a detachment of 
Johnnies from the west had got ahead. The reg- 
iment marched around and around near the east- 
ern end of the gap. It was evidently the inten- 
tion to impress the enemy with the idea that the 
force was much larger than it was. The regiment 
marched up to the top of a hill and down in an 
opposite valley a number of times. The glisten- 
ing of the moon on the rifles as the regiment con- 
tinually wound around the top of the hill would 
impress the enemy as being opposed by a very 



45 

large force. The next morning after getting into 
the gap, the force was met with a warm musketry 
lire from the enemy and the boy first heard the 
noted rebel yell. After the yell they did not 
charge as was anticipated, but withdrew. They 
had accomplished what they had been sent there 
to do. We heard from them later. 

The regiment remained in the Gap until near 
noon, when it was marched to eastward again. It 
was tramp, tramp, for hours. Heavy guns were 
heard, showing that a battle was in progress. The 
regiment did not get on the field until nightfall. 
They marched in and took up a position on a rise 
of ground and laid in line of battle. The battle 
was over for the day. The ground was covered 
with the debris of a contest. Canteens, rifles and 
other paraphernalia of combat were strewn in pro- 
fusion over the field. The next morning, until 
near noon, the regiment lay in wait, without 
breakfast, expecting every moment to spring into 
action. Soon wagons came up with hardtack. 
On distribution it was found to be alive with 
worms; but hunger was sufficient to overcome 
any squeamishness and the bread and worms were 
ravenously devoured. A movement of the enemy 
was then noticed. Bodies of men were seen de- 
ploying out of the woods and batteries of artil- 
lery galloped rapidly over the distant hills. Or- 
ders came for a movement. The regiment was 



46 

second in line, preceded by a Zouave (N.Y.) regi- 
ment. The column marched in quick time be- 
tween two hills which were immediately occupied, 
each by a battery of Confederate artillery. They 
threw a plunging fire directly down upon the first 
regiment, creating an awful slaughter. The 
Zouaves lost several hundred men in a few min- 
utes. One of these men was brought down past 
and he was the only man the boy ever heard that 
cried out in pain on a battlefield. His hip was 
shattered by a round shot. Just as the regiment 
was entering the shambles, a general's aide rap- 
idly advanced and directed the colonel to move to 
the right, out of range. The column advanced 
through brush and amongst trees until it reached 
a very large cleared space. There it drew up in 
line under cover, watching a Texas brigade apn 
proaching over rolling, cleared hills. They, 
marched grandly with ensigns flying, sometimes 
concealed in valleys, then appearing on the rising 
ground. When they got comparatively close they 
began firing at will. They could not see the force 
opposing because the line was concealed in the 
brush ; but their shots killed a number. The col- 
onel of the boy's regiment was lost in the advance 
to this position. After the fight he turned up and 
stated that his horse had been shot under him, but 
no member of the regiment could be found that 
saw this event. It was generally thought that he 



47 

had no stomach for warfare and had voluntarily 
remained in the rear. The lieutenant colonel was 
on sick leave, therefore, the regiment was under 
command of the major. A braver man never 
stood in boot leather. He ordered that not a shot 
should be fired until the enemy approached so 
close that the whites of their eyes could be seen, 
and marched up and down before the men to see 
that his orders were obeyed. The boy noticed a 
cluster of frightened squirrels between the lines 
and could not help thinking how the circum- 
stances made them comparatively safe, sur- 
rounded, as they were, by armed men who had 
no thought of them. The game anticipated was 
of a different kind. The men held their fire until 
all four of the enemy's regiments advancing stood, 
one back of the other, on level ground. The 
major sprang to the rear and gave the order to 
fire. No more slaughtering volley was delivered 
during the war. The contending forces were 
close together, and when the smoke cleared away 
each regiment of the enemy's line was visible on 
the ground, dead or wounded. Those that es- 
caped rushed to their left and were taken pris- 
oners by a regular regiment on the right. There 
was a contest afterwards as to who should pos- 
sess the flags. The regiment claimed that on ac- 
count of their fire dissipating the brigade, the flags 
belonged to them ; but higher authority ruled oth- 



48 

erwise. The column with no enemy in front 
moved to the left through the woods. The enemy 
opened on them with heavy artillery. The firing 
was too high for direct execution ; but a few men 
were wounded by falling trees cut off by the balls. 
The movement was kept up until the regiment got 
to a slightly sunken road when it stationed itself 
to oppose some advancing Confederates. The 
enemy protected themselves by the trees, firing 
from behind. The boy's company had, as a mem- 
ber, a man who had been nicknamed "Deacon." 
He acquired this title because he was the most 
accomplished swearer in the Northern army. He 
was the best hearted man possible, never in a tem- 
per; but his oaths would slip out without provo- 
cation in a sulphurous, good-natured stream. The 
boy, on turning around to load, noticed the Dea- 
con lying on his back. With the indifference of 
battle, he only thought, "Well, the poor Deacon 
has passed in his checks." After delivering his 
fire he turned to load again when he noticed the 
Deacon getting on his knees, uttering fathoms of 
the vocabulary that he was gifted with. In the 
volume the boy noticed the words, "Damn the 
man that put fourteen shots in a rifle." It seems 
that when the Deacon was about to fire, a bullet 
struck the lockplate of his musket, putting it out 
of commission. He then grabbed up the musket 
of a man who had been killed. He rammed down 



49 

a load, blazing away, and was kicked over on his 
back. The immediate solution occurred to him 
that the previous owner had been ramming home 
charges without discharging any of them. 

There was an old man in the company who 
could not be taught to drill. The officers had got 
discouraged in trying to teach him the manual of 
arms, and had given the job up in disgust. The 
man was detained as company cook and he made 
a very good one. His place was with the wagons. 
He was marching along when he heard the dis- 
tant firing. He said to his fellow baggage guards, 
"The boys are in a fight; that is the place for me." 
He left the wagons and started for the front. 
Hours afterwards he jumped into line with his 
knapsack on. All the rest of the boys had de- 
posited theirs in a field before entering the fight. 
On getting up to the company, he exclaimed, 
"Here I am, boys, I can fight if I cannot drill." 
Immediately, before he could load, a ball struck 
him just above the eyes, and that was the last of 
Old Jones. 

The regiment was on the left of the line of 
battle. This battle of Manassas was an important 
one. There were over fifty thousand men en- 
gaged on each side and the line of battle extended 
for many miles. The left wing held its own and 
in many places was victorious ; but the right wing 
was doubled back upon the left and had to retreat, 



50 

the left following and acting as rear guard. The 
captain of the company was not present. He also 
had no stomach for a fight. Altho the best com- 
pany drill master in the army, he could never mas- 
ter the intricacies of battalion drill, altho he was 
afterwards made a brigadier general through po- 
litical influence. Long after the war he was sent 
to prison for wrecking a bank. Captain Classen 
had got his brother appointed a first lieutenant 
of the company. He was a big, lubberly boy with- 
out ordinary common sense, and he became very 
unpopular. He appeared after the fight, in which 
he was not seen, with a finger wrapped up, claim- 
ing that he was wounded. When the wrapping 
was taken off in two days no mark of wounding 
could be observed. He left the regiment within 
a week. During the fight the company was under 
the command of the second lieutenant, who was 
a gallant officer. 

To show how indifferent soldiers are to wounds 
at the time of receiving them, it is well to men- 
tion that the boy noticed blood on the back of his 
file-leader, when drawn up after the battle. "You 
are wounded," he said. "No, I guess not," was 
the reply; but soon he noticed the pain, was sent 
to hospital, and within a week died from the ef- 
fects. 

After the fight the regiment formed camp for 
a while and then started to follow the retreating 



51 

column the next morning. ''On to Washington" 
was the word. The road was crowded with 
troops, the baggage train moving on the right. 
The regiment marched all day until the edge of 
dusk, when a cannon shot rang out from the left, 
passing between the company and the company in 
advance. It found its mark in the body of a mule, 
attached to one of the baggage wagons. Imme- 
diately that teamster and others began to cut 
traces with the intent of stampeding. One of the 
officers jumped forward and shot two of the men; 
that stopped the scare. The cannon shot was hos- 
tile; but from whence? The troops began to de- 
ploy off the road and then commenced one of the 
fiercest musketry fights during the war. The boy 
always knew it as the Monday's fight after Man- 
assas; Chantilly, some called it. The regiment 
was on the reserve as formerly. The opposing 
force that was engaged consisted in part of the 
Confederates met at Thoroughfare Gap. They 
had marched over the mountains and country, 
around the Northern army, to a point directly in 
the rear. They could not take with them ordi- 
nary artillery; but had jackass batteries, one of 
which had opened the battle as described. It 
rained fiercely after nine o'clock, during the latter 
part of the engagement. The result of the fight 
was a drawn one. The enemy remained on the 
battlefield and the Northern forces remained 



52 

where they commenced. The next morning the 
boy was placed on guard across the road down 
which the enemy occupied the ground. Shortly 
there appeared, a long distance off, what seemed 
to be approaching cavalry. Sharply watching, the 
object developed as a wagon, and soon it was seen 
to be a rebel ambulance with two men marching 
on either side and another on the seat with the 
driver. The ambulance bore a flag of truce. The 
boy challenged, and it developed that the ambu- 
lance contained the body of General Kearny who 
was killed the night before. The body was taken 
out and laid in the hall of a small house in which 
the surgeons were operating on wounded soldiers. 
There was a continuous stream of stretchers com- 
ing to the house, and almost as many taken out 
with soldiers for burial that had died under the 
operations. No chloroform or ether was in evi- 
dence, and the poor fellows could not survive the 
shock of amputation. When an arm or a leg was 
cut off, it received a quick passage out of a win- 
dow on the side. As this house was on the boy's 
beat, he watched the growth of this pile of de- 
tached members with a great deal of interest. The 
general's body received a thorough examination 
by the surgeons, who, with bloody hands and 
arms, quickly cut away the uniform. They re- 
ported that death must have occurred through 
shock as no wound appeared on the body. It was 



S3 

removed to a Union ambulance and sent to Wash- 
ington. 

The enemy being held in check by an immense 
display of artillery, the troops again took up the 
march to Washington. When nearing camp at 
Alexandria, weary, foot-sore and nearly famished, 
the regiment came to a Massachusetts command, 
just arrived from home. They had prepared 
their evening meal of baked beans. They sang 
out, "How do you feel, boys?" The answer came 
promptly, "Damned hungry." The reply, hospi- 
table and hearty, was quickly returned, "Come in 
and eat our beans." The beans soon disappeared 
where they would do the most good. 



CHAPTER VI. 

On leaving camp, at Alexandria, the column 
continued its march to and through Washington. 
The boy had been ailing for some time. Diarrhea 
had reduced his strength and walking typhoid 
developed. The surgeon ordered him to the rear 
to march along the best he could. When going 
through Georgetown, a suburb of Washington, 
a lady came to the door of a fine residence and 
invited him in for refreshments. The idea en- 
tered his head that the request was based on the 
belief that he was a tramp, so he stiffly declined. 
He was very sorry afterwards for refusing when 



54 

he heard, from another sick soldier, that he was 
very kindly received in the house and had been 
served with the finest of food, in the most cour- 
teous manner. When the long roll beat to as- 
semble the men to go into Antietam action, the 
boy was in line. The surgeon came along and 
ordered him to the rear again. The troops 
marched forward and the boy was placed in a 
dirt cart without springs, in company with 
another sick soldier, and an officer, who, when 
rushing forward in answer to the long roll, buck- 
ling on his accoutrements, dropped his pistol, 
which, exploding, sent a ball through his ankle. 
The boy was too sick to notice the poor convey- 
ance; but the wounded officer suffered terribly. 
In two days the cart arrived at Carver Hospital, 
just outside of Washington, and the boy was 
placed in bed. There were many thousands of 
sick and wounded soldiers in this hospital. The 
management was very bad. The death rate was 
very high. It would seem that after so many 
months of the war, the period 'should have arrived 
when systematic efforts developed a semblance 
of correct hospital treatment. This was far from 
the fact. After a while the boy convalesced 
enough to take one trip to a shed where he found 
that the soup was served in tin cups, with nearly 
half an inch of rank fat on top. This was nice 
food to put before sick and wounded men. In 



55 

fact, they could not touch such stuff, preferring 
to starve. It was not suitable food for a hearty 
laboring man. There has always been a warm 
spot in the heart of this boy for the Sisters of 
Charity, on account of their action in this case. 
When the boy noticed the soup and could not 
touch it, some Sisters of Charity came into the 
room. They looked with astonishment upon the 
meal. "Why, this is not proper food to serve 
to sick soldiers. We will try to have it changed," 
they exclaimed. The next day huge casks of 
crockery were sent to the hospital and light, pala- 
table soups were thereafter placed before the men, 
causing an immediate decrease in the death rate. 
One day, when the boy was able to sit up for 
an hour or two, he was resting on the edge of the 
bed, when the doctor came through the ward. He 
asked the boy how he felt. The reply was, *T am 
all right." The doctor took out his note book and 
wrote something. The next day the boy was or- 
dered back to his regiment. When he heard his 
name called, he got up and by means of holding 
on to projections got to the door and called out 
the number of his knapsack. It was brought and 
thrown down at his feet. He tried to get the 
knapsack on his back, but without success. He 
got one strap over his shoulder and then fell down 
in a faint. The steward of the ward, a devilish 
good fellow, w^as out of the ward. He soon re- 



56 

turned, and noticing the bed of the boy unoccu- 
pied, asked where he was. On getting the reply 
that he had been called to return to his regiment, 
he rushed out in the yard in time to pick the boy 
up and toted him back to bed where he lay with- 
out consciousness for a long time. In two or 
three days the doctor again passed through the 
ward, when the boy was again sitting on his bed. 
He came up and said, "What did you make a fool 
of me for?" The boy replied, "I did not try to 
make a fool of you." The doctor replied, "You 
said you were all right." He pretended to make 
an examination by placing his ear to the boy's 
breast, then took out his note book again and 
wrote. The next day the boy's name was called 
for discharge. He was placed in an ambulance 
and taken to the cars. Such men, claiming to be 
doctors, were often in charge of sick and wounded 
soldiers during the war. No wonder the death 
roll was so large. Men of that calibre should not 
have had charge of a dog or cat sanitarium. 

On arrival of the train, the boy was placed in a 
carriage and taken to his home which was then 
on Fourth avenue, New York, and placed in bed. 
The mother noticed the discharge in the boy's 
pocket and it set her wild. It read, "Discharged 
on account of ossification of the aorta." With 
such a disease one could hardly expect to live 
more than a few weeks. She immediately sent 



57 

for the family physician and an expert. The boy 
heard the expert say, after a thorough examina- 
tion, "If every lad had as good a heart, there 
would be no disease of that organ in the world." 
He also heard the expert say another thing which 
changed his career in life. What he heard was, 
"All the boy needs is building up. He has passed 
through the typhoid crisis all right, and I would 
advise sending him on a sea voyage." That 
report had an extremely reviving effect. From 
earliest boyhood he had a desire to go to sea, as 
told previously. When the doctors left, the boy 
told his mother what he had heard. The mother 
was surprised on account of the low tones of the 
interview; but stated that a friend was expected 
back soon with his ship from the Mediterranean 
and when he returned she would arrange with 
him for passage on his next trip. What! go to 
sea as a passenger? No. If he went at all it 
would be as a sailor. The mother smiled, think- 
ing it a boyish whim. But no, it was a determi- 
nation, and the idea built the boy up rapidly. In 
a few days he was able to walk around and soon 
found himself before a flaming sign on South 
street, stating, "Men wanted for a whaling voy- 
age. Good treatment. Good food, and a chance 
to see the world." That was the chance and the 
boy mounted the steps to the shipping office. Pre- 
senting himself, he was told that he did not show 



S8 

Up well physically; but men were awfully scarce 
and he was shipped on the whale ship Mount Wal- 
laston. On telling his mother what he had done, 
she was terribly put out ; but when informed that 
he had actually signed the articles, she saw no 
use in putting up objections. Therefore, the grand- 
father's sea bag was brought out, packed, and the 
boy started for New Bedford via the Fall River 
boat. On the boat a man was met who had 
shipped on the same Mount Wallaston as a 
boat steerer. He was a good fellow and they 
were soon firm friends. On arrival at New Bed- 
ford, the ship not being ready to receive the crew, 
the boy was directed to a hotel. When he got 
to his room, he found it contained two beds and 
soon appeared a man to occupy the other bed. He 
introduced himself as the second mate of the 
Mount Wallaston, and the boy thought himself 
lucky to get acquainted with two officers of the 
ship before sailing. The second mate seemed to 
be a good fellow and talked freely of his experi- 
ences on whaling voyages. The boy went in the 
morning to get what is called an outfit for the 
cruise. He was provided with a chest, or donkey 
as the sailors called it, containing coarse shirts, 
shoes, palm for sewing sails, sheath knife, and 
other paraphernalia of use on board. These goods 
were charged up at the most exorbitant prices. 
For instance, a shirt that would cost one dollar 



59 

in the shops would be charged up at four dollars. 
With donkey and goods provided, the boy was all 
ready for the sea, and in the afternoon he, with 
the rest of the crew, went on board the vessel. 
The ship sailed late in the afternoon on an event- 
ful voyage, which, as far as the boy was con- 
cerned, lasted three years and six days. All the 
men were green and the ship had to be worked 
by the officers, with the boat steerers, until the 
men could be broken in. The breaking in process 
commenced immediately. The wind freshened to 
a top-sail breeze on leaving port, and it was 
necessary to take in the topgallant sails. The men 
were rushing aimlessly about the decks not know- 
ing what to do. The boy thought that until he 
knew what to take hold of it was best to remain 
inactive, so he sat himself down in the fore- 
hatch. The second mate, whom he had chummed 
with the night before, came along and in a rough 
voice demanded to know why the damned lubber 
was not aloft. With such a kind reminder of his 
duties, the boy got on the ratlines and proceeded 
to climb to what seemed to him at the time an 
immense distance on the swaying shrouds. He was 
of no use aloft, but he had received his first lesson. 
He had learned that the second mate was a differ- 
ent man on ship to what he appeared ashore. He 
also learned that prompt obedience was demanded 
and that it depended upon himself to learn the 



6o 

ropes and become a factor aboard the ship. He 
soon got there, and in a few days he could in- 
telligently obey an order, and in a short time be- 
came one of the best of sailors. The principal 
obstacle he had to contend with was insufficient 
strength; but he quickly gained that and became 
robust and extremely active. 

The captain had made money whaling, retired 
from the sea, bought a farm, became a deacon of 
the church, and thought he would end his days 
in the enjoyment of his hard-earned means; but 
a bad speculation that he went into swept away 
all he possessed and he had to seek another ship. 
The result was, he became captain of the Mount 
Wallaston. He had lived ashore for ten years 
and had become imbued with the religious cant 
and hypocrisy that is common on the Massachu- 
setts coast. The day after leaving port he called 
up the whole crew and told them that he would 
not allow any swearing or abuse on the ship ; that 
no man should be struck and all should live to- 
gether as a band of brothers. It was a good 
Sunday school talk. Comparatively a few days 
passed when one of the men did not obey 
promptly a command given by one of the officers. 
After a flow of sulphurous language and a blow 
that made his head ache, he thought, remember- 
ing the Sunday school talk, that a report to the 
captain was in order; therefore he made his way 



6i 

aft to that officer, and on telling his story was 
ordered forward with the remark that he had 
got nothing more than he had deserved. Report- 
ing to the captain was tabooed after that. 

The boy was selected for the second mate's 
w^atch, and to pull the stroke oar in the captain's 
boat. The vessel, which was only 350 tons, sailed 
almost to the Canary Islands, thence to the South 
American coast, near the river Platte. Nothing 
of importance occurred during this time. The 
men got down into working condition. The boats 
were lowered during calms and the men thor- 
oughly drilled in handling them. When south of 
the river Platte a cry of 'There she blows" from 
the crow's nest brought the boat's crew to their 
positions in quick time. The boats were promptly 
in the water. In about forty minutes the mate's 
boat struck a small sperm whale. He was a 
fighter altho only a calf. The captain tried to 
get onto him to use the lance. The fellow made 
for the boat with the intent to crush it in his 
mouth, but could not on account of his size. This 
calf was soon killed and towed to the ship. He 
made only 8 barrels of oil, and this was the only 
sperm whale the Mount Wallaston secured dur- 
ing the voyage. It was also the only oil obtained 
for thirteen months. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The ship gradually approached the Horn. 
When opposite the entrance to the Strait of Le 
Maire, a ship that was inshore cleared away for 
the Strait. The captain conferred with the mate 
in regard to taking the same course, but they con- 
cluded to go around the Horn. That decision 
caused the crew many weeks of extreme hardship 
and suffering. We kept on, and getting off the 
extreme rocks of the Horn were becalmed. The 
vessel drifted about without steerageway. The 
boats were lowered and a trial made to shoot 
albatross, or gonies, as they are called by the sail- 
ors. The birds were not afraid of the boats or 
men and swam close up so they could be lifted out 
of the water if the crew cared to do so. With 
such game, shooting was out of the question. 

Signs of a change of weather were noticed and 
the boats were called in. Soon a scorcher came 
from the northwest. It came with a force that 
caused all sails to be taken in. Soon the ship 
was running before it under bare poles. This race 
was kept up until the ship was amongst huge ice- 
bergs of the South Pole. Seven of these huge 
masses of ice, towering away beyond the height 
of the masts, were around the ship. The wind 
then moderated and the ship began to tack back. 



63 

It took one month to get back to the latitude from 
which the blow drove the vessel. The ship that 
was seen entering the Straits of Le Maire escaped 
the bad weather and got into port a month ahead. 
During the time the men were down to the South- 
land, in the most wretched weather, they all broke 
out with painful boils which it would have been 
a pleasure to transfer to some other fellow. The 
ship soon struck the Trades and sped north be- 
fore them, wing and wing, which, with a ship rig, 
meant studding sails on both sides of the vessel. 
The weather was delightful, fully appreciated 
after the experience in the southern sea. 

The vessel approached and was becalmed near 
the Island of Juan Fernandez, where Alexander 
Selkirk spent much time according to the story. 
The land bore out the truthfulness of the tale in 
one respect, for it seemed to be over-populated 
with goats. They could be seen in every direc- 
tion, fringing the steep bluffs. The captain had 
his boat lowered and pulled for the shore, think- 
ing that he saw a beef critter on the beach. Fresh 
beef was a desideratum. When we approached 
close it was found that a goat stood on a little 
rise and in the mist loomed up to the size of a bull. 
We threw our lines over and began to fish. Soon 
the boy felt a bite and at the same time the cap- 
tain on the other side of the boat began to haul in, 
at the same time calling out to the boy to stop as 



64 

he was fouling his Hne. But both continued to 
haul in, and it was found that an extremely large 
Congo eel had swallowed the boy's hook, fouling 
the captain's line. The catch was not valued by 
the boy, who allowed one of the other sailors to 
detach the reptile. 

One of the crew was a German-American. He 
had inherited some German peculiariites, one of 
which was a love of beer, and he had some knowl- 
edge concerning its manufacture. Procuring a 
small tight keg, he filled it with water, potato 
peelings, molasses, and other ingredients, which 
produced a very palatable drink that was enjoyed 
highly by his messmates. Several charges had 
been carried through to the finished beer, when at 
last the keg was loaded with either too much, or 
the extremely warm weather passed through 
caused too rapid fermentation, with the result of 
creating an explosion that w^as heard from one 
end of the vessel to the other. The keg had been 
placed under the German's bunk. The boy's sleep- 
ing place was next above. Luckily, both were on 
the watch on deck when the catastrophe occurred, 
making a wreck of the two bunks. The watch be- 
low rushed on deck in a panic, claiming that some 
one had set off an infernal bomb. Gradually mat- 
ters became quieted down; but that was the last 
of beer making on the old Mount Wallaston. 

The bill of fare aboard ship was not such as to 



65 

tempt the appetite of one who hves now (1910) 
in the era of good cookery. It consisted of salt 
beef, called by the sailors salt horse, and salt pork, 
the only meats; split peas for soup; and coffee 
sweetened with molasses, for there was no sugar 
on the vessel and milk was an unheard-of deli- 
cacy. The old negro cook, called the doctor, man- 
aged the galley with authority supreme. Any 
complaint reached deaf ears. He had been a cook 
on whaling vessels all his life and thought no one 
knew better than he how to serve the limited 
articles of food. Lobscouse, prepared by boiling 
for a long time sliced up chunks of salt pork and 
hardtack, was placed in a calabash, from which 
the men would spoon into their tin plates the 
amount required, and with a quart of alleged 
coffee, they would enjoy a hearty meal. This 
was the principal dish. Twice a week a so-called 
plum duff was furnished, a direful concoction. 
It often came before the men all dough in the 
centre; but it was looked forward to with pleas- 
ure. During the voyage there were two days 
lost, at different times, crossing the meridian, and 
those two days happened to be duff days, causing 
sorrow to the crew. In the night-watches dandy 
funk was very popular. It was prepared by plac- 
ing hardtack in a piece of canvas, and with a ham- 
mer vigorously applied, the bread was broken into 
small pieces. These pieces were placed in a tin 



66 

cup and vinegar and molasses added. This mess 
was considered, when taken in the night-watch, 
equal to the nectar of the gods. 

At the end of five months the vessel entered the 
harbor of Hilo, Sandwich Islands. This is a sailor's 
paradise. A lot of provisions and other stuff was 
placed in a large wooden warehouse. A large 
spar was part of the material stored. Very la- 
boriously the spar was got in the building by 
slanting it up to the roof, as it was too long to lie 
flat. After placing it, one of the men rushed 
away to the boat. On being called back, he was 
asked what he ran to the boat for ; he replied that 
he went after a line to lash the spar with. That 
created a laugh. The man had become used to 
lashing everything aboard ship and forgot that 
the old spar could remain until it rotted in the old 
building. 

There is a large, high mountain on the right of 
the harbor of Hilo, just back from the town. The 
prevailing winds are such that they strike this 
mountain, which wrings every particle of water 
out of them. It falls in a light, hardly noticeable 
shower every day in the year. Just beyond the 
mountain no moisture ever falls and the country 
for a long distance is entirely barren. The people 
never carry umbrellas, as the sun is shining 
brightly most of the day as the mist falls. 

In Hilo the men got one dollar each, liberty 



67 

money, and one day's run ashore, which they 
made the most of. Sailors hugely enjoy 
this one day's liberty after a long voyage. They 
were amused and edified by happenings that 
would pass unnoticed by those continually on land. 
Horseback riding is one of the sports indulged in. 
Now, it is well known that sailors are not profi- 
cient as horsemen, but that is no reason why they 
should not attempt to steer the refractory steeds, 
much to the discomfort of both. Horse hire is 
very cheap, but a ship's crew requires many, so 
the animals are taught to throw the rider off 
after going some distance and speeding back to 
be re-hired by another sailor. 

After lying in Hilo harbor a few days the ship 
started for the whaling grounds in the Okhotsk 
Sea. Weeks were spent in a fruitless search, 
sailing around that sea. No whales were in evi- 
dence. At last three boats, one containing our 
boy, were loaded down with provisions and 
started on a hunt along the coast. The boats 
pulled for Dead Man's Island to land the super- 
fluous provisions, retaining only enough to last 
the first part of the trip. On reaching the shore, 
the men dug a large hole in the face of a cliff 
and placed the stuff therein. Then, after rolling 
some heavy drift logs across the opening, began 
to toss stones up to cover the hole and continued 
the work until they made a long slant toward the 



shore. Remarks were made concerning such ap- 
parently useless labor, but one of the officers 
stated that it was necessary to prevent the bears 
from destroying the provisions. The boats then 
started south for the cruise. The men pulled all 
day and camped on shore each night. This was 
kept up for sixteen days and nights, without find- 
ing any signs of whales. Altho the days were 
warm, the nights were very cold; but whenever 
the camp fire was built immense clouds of mosqui- 
toes would appear, making life burdensome. One 
night when the pests prevented sleep entirely, it 
was noticed that a nigger boy in the party was 
soundly snoring, entirely oblivious to the stings 
of the insects. He was promptly roused up and 
told to walk around like the rest of the Christians. 
He blurted out, "Why don't you rub pork rine 
on de hands and face and de pests won't trouble 
yez." The hint was immediately taken and the 
greasy-looking fellows were soon in sound slum- 
ber. Late one afternoon the boats put up a bay 
and landed at a place called Dobray Town. Do- 
bray in Russian means good. This good town 
was a straggling village of a few log huts. The 
natives came down to the boats in the most hos- 
pitable manner and took all the boys to their huts. 
The boy was detailed to see that everything was 
in proper condition for the night. While attend- 
ing to his duties, a rather pretty woman appeared 



69 

and in very good English invited him to spend 
the night in her home. He learned afterward that 
this lady, a Russian, had become proficient in 
English and had acted as governess to a Russian 
family in Moscow. She afterwards married a 
rough Russian, and it is supposed he was trans- 
ported for some crime to this far-off section of 
the empire, the wife accompanying him, as is the 
custom of wives — always ready to condone the ac- 
tions of vicious husbands. When they reached 
the house it was found to consist of only one 
room, built of logs, with a fireplace in one corner. 
Otherwise than the swinging pot over the fire 
and some pans, the furnishing consisted entirely 
of a bench about two feet wide running around 
the room, attached to the walls, only broken where 
it approached the door and fireplace. On this 
bench were strewn a lot of furs. The husband, 
a villainous-looking fellow, soon appeared with a 
boy about ten years old. The wife, who had fallen 
on the ice the winter before, laming herself 
slightly, became busy in prepaHng the simple fare. 
The repast when ready consisted of Russian tea, 
as the lady called it, very weak, hardly more than 
hot water, without sugar or milk, and four ducks 
swimming in an inch of fat. A board was placed 
across the corners of the bench for a table and 
the family gathered around. No knives or forks 
appearing, there was considerable doubt in the 



70 

mind of the stranger how the fowls would be 
managed ; but soon each of the family grabbed a 
duck and began gnawing it. The stranger asked 
the wife if it would be agreeable if he went to the 
boats for some crackers or hardtack. She was 
immensely pleased at the suggestion and soon a 
lot of ship's bread adorned the board, and they 
all had a good meal. The old man soon noticed a 
large jack-knife, which the stranger had attached 
to a lanyard, fastened with a hitch to his panta- 
loons. The Russian began to make motions. The 
lady stated that her husband wanted to purchase 
the knife. The old man offered one fur, adding 
two, three, four and five, as the stranger shook 
his head. At last he took up a black fox skin, a 
very valuable fur, worth many hundred times the 
cost of the knife. This also met with a refusal, 
as the stranger could not do without his knife. 
The old man showed much disappointment; but 
all soon prepared to retire. Several skins were 
placed on the bench for the stranger to sleep upon 
with one large skin for covering. The rest of the 
family provided themselves with similar beds, and 
soon all were in sound slumber. When in the 
morning the stranger awoke he found that the 
family had all got up and disappeared except the 
wife, who politely asked how he had slept, and 
showed pleasure with the reply that he had never 
slept better in his life. After a while the stranger 



71 



noticed that his knife was gone. He mentioned 
the fact to the wife and she showed great surprise. 
She thought the stranger had dropped it some- 
where, an impossible occurrence, as it was fas- 
tened with the lanyard to his pantaloons. She 
began to hunt along the rafters of the hut as 
though the knife could have flown upwards. She 
then suggested that the knife was lost when the 
bread was got from the boat the night before. 
The stranger took it all in good part and went to 
the boats trying to make up his mind how to 
obtain his knife without creating a scene with his 
hospitable entertainers. He soon returned with 
the report that he had not found the lost article, 
much to the sorrow of the wife. While standing 
pondering how he should act, a ray of sunlight 
lighted up the floor over which he had slept, and 
there was seen his knife in a crack with the lan- 
yard neatly straightened out. With pleasure he 
sang out that the knife was found. The wife ex- 
pressed great joy at the discovery. Evidently the 
old man had detached the lanyard from the sleep- 
ing boy, and when it was seen that he was making 
a determined attempt to find the lost article it was 
placed along the crack with the simple thought 
that if found the reason would appear that it was 
dropped in slumber. The stranger left the house 
in good form after thanking the wife for her kmd 



72 

treatment, and was soon pulling away on the sea 
with the rest of the boys. 

Provisions getting low, the boats began the re- 
turn journey to Dead Man's Island to replenish. 
Eventually they got to the island late in the after- 
noon with every particle of food exhausted. The 
men pulled heartily around the point, thinking of 
the nourishing food there stored, to break a fast 
lasting from early morning. What a disappoint- 
ent was in store for them. They found that the 
bears had hauled down all the stones and gnawed 
through the heavy logs. They had pulled out all 
the stuff and what they could not eat had de- 
stroyed. The jugs of molasses they had broken 
and dug deep holes in the sand seeking the flow- 
ing sweets. The bags of bread they had pulled 
out, tramped over, and the rains had dissolved 
the contents. The sides of pork they had taken 
up on the rising ground and left in an uneatable 
condition. There the men were, after one day's 
fast, without a semblance of food or water, for 
there was none on this island, and apparently 
without a source of supply for days. The outlook 
was dismal, indeed. At last, one of the officers re- 
membered there was a Russian place called Amur 
City across a deep bight of land on the main shore. 
There was nothing to do otherwise than try to find 
this place. It was a mournful lot of men that 
started the boats for Amur City, most of them be- 



73, 

lieving that it was a wild-goose chase. They 
pulled all the rest of the night and all the next 
day until, at the edge of dusk, the famished men 
had hardly strength enough to force the boats on 
the sands of the found city. The city consisted 
of two very large log houses and a large board 
building. The people, who were Russians, came 
down to the beach and noticing the condition of 
the men ran back to the board building and re- 
ported, when immediately appeared two ladies, 
accompanied by several Russian officers. The 
men were gotten out of the boats and soon hot 
tea and Russian bread revived them into action. 
A hearty supper was provided and a happy lot of 
men slept soundly that night in one of the log 
houses. Amur City was found to be one of the 
headquarters of the Russian Fur Company, and 
the ladies, wives of the officers, were on a visit to 
this far-off post. They were more than gracious, 
and the boy always remembered them as the most 
beautiful women he had ever met. To show how 
cold it got at this place in winter, one man showed 
up who had no ears and the reason given was that 
in running from one log house to the other, about 
an ordinary street* s width apart, he had frozen 
both ears, causing them to drop off. 

Late in the morning the boats, well provisioned 
by their kind friends, started off to find the ship. 
When the ship was sighted it appeared to wind- 



74 

ward. The boat's sails had been up just before 
sighting. The pull to windward was found to be 
unusually laborious and the reason did not appear 
until they were raised on their davits when it was 
found that in the excitement to get aboard the 
ship the boat's crew had omitted to raise their 
centre-boards, which are always lowered when 
sailing on the wind. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The ship continued to cruise and only lowered 
once for a whale. In the north is a species of duck, 
whose cry sounds extremely like a human sarcas- 
tic laugh. When the boat's crew got near this 
whale, in a thick fog, it went down before the 
iron could be thrown. At this time a flock of 
these birds uttered their peculiar cry. It sounded 
so natural that the men thought at first they were 
being laughed at for missing the whale. 

While lying in Tschanta Bay, Okhotsk Sea, a 
startling event happened. There was an anchor 
watch on deck. The boy was sleeping in his 
berth when he heard one of the boats go down 
with a rush. He sprang out and made for the 
companionway, when he was stopped by a big 
Kanaka who was a member of the crew. The 
Kanaka had just struck a match to light his pipe, 
and told the boy to turn in again if he did not 



75 

want his head smashed. Such a hint seemed 
strange, but it was obeyed. He thought after- 
wards that the Kanaka had been approached. 
When the men woke up in the morning, they 
could not get out of the forecastle at first; but 
soon the obstruction was removed and they 
rushed on deck. They found that a boat's crew 
had skedaddled after chaining up the forecastle 
and fastening the cabin entrance. They had taken 
all the bomb guns, rifles, oar locks from all the 
boats, and other material. The runaway crew 
consisted of the four Portuguese boat steerers and 
the two men from the forecastle who were on an- 
chor watch. The officers had broken open the 
cabin entrance with an axe and then opened out 
the ship. An immediate hunt for oarlocks com- 
menced ; but they were not found for a long time. 
The carpenter had begun to prepare some, when 
the cook in feeding the pigs moved some of the 
bedding and found the oarlocks all in a bunch. 
Two boats were ordered down, the boy being in 
one, to hunt the fugitives. Thinking, of course, 
the boat would head for the Japan sea, the boats 
in pursuit took that course. After getting out of 
sight of the ship, the second mate told the boys 
to pull easy. The third mate in the second boat 
followed suit. In a short time the second mate 
said that it would be a nice thing to come up to 
the boat armed with all the bomb guns and other 



76 

firearms of the ship, whereas his boats did not 
have even a pop-gun. It did not appear to him 
to be at all enticing. In fact, he had concluded to 
do no more hunting, so the boats were pulled to 
an island. The men landed, and building a good 
fire had their supper and turned in. The second 
mate had a top coat that he was very proud of 
and valued very highly. Towards morning the 
fire had burned low and the officer got cold. In- 
stead of replenishing the fire he laid down close 
to the embers, before the feet of the men. The 
men, noticing in a sleepy manner the lack of heat 
from the fire, stretched out their legs and pushed 
the mate, coat and all, into the fire. That was the 
last of the second mate's coat, but not the last the 
men heard about the loss. The next day the 
boats returned to the ship and reported that they 
could not find the runaways. It was learned a 
long time afterward that the absconding crew 
fled down the Japan Sea to the Amur River, 
where they reported that the ship was wrecked 
and that they were all that had survived. The 
Russian government sent them to San Francisco, 
Cal., as castaways. The two foremost hands in 
the boat the boy saw years afterwards. One, 
Finck by name, had a prominent jewelry store in 
San Francisco. The other was a livery stable 
keeper in San Jose, Cal. 

Before the event just noted a party was got up 



n 

to hunt bears one night. In this party was the 
negro boy. The men went ashore and stationed 
themselves near a runway where the bears came 
down the hill at night to search the beach for dead 
fish. The men had got nicely concealed when the 
bears came, in their clumsy manner, down the 
steep path, dislodging stones that preceded them 
in their rumbling descent to the shore. The negro 
boy then conceived the idea that he did not like 
bears. He wanted to go to the ship and com- 
menced to yell in terror. A comforter was 
quickly fastened over his mouth. The bears con- 
tinued to advance and two were shot. After the 
cook had exhausted his skill over the meat, it was 
thrown away as uneatable on account of its strong 
taste. 

The season being up, the ship started for Hon- 
olulu, Sandwich Islands. The captain had not 
kept discipline with the officers or men. His milk 
and water action and lack of success was displeas- 
ing to both. When the ship got in Honolulu har- 
bor all the officers resigned. The men could not 
resign, but the boy drew up a communication to 
the American Consul which was signed by all. 
It was placed in the hands of a bumboat man to 
deliver. The ship was lying off and on, that is, 
sailing in tacks before the harbor. The next day 
there appeared a large rowboat alongside, and the 
captain appearing, said that the Consul wanted 



78 

to see one-half of the crew. The object was plain, 
to split up the crew, and while one-half was 
ashore, to overcome the rest. The crew objected 
to the division and told the captain that all de- 
manded to go ashore together. They wished to 
lay their complaints before the Consul in a body. 
The captain then left the deck and returned with 
a pistol in each hand, accompanied by the new 
officers bearing boxes of handcuffs. The men 
were all gathered around the try-works, as intelli- 
gent and as determined a body of men as ever 
sailed the seas. The captain came forward and 
placed the pistol close to the head of the ship's 
carpenter, always called "Chips," and cried out, 
"You, the ringleader, hold out your hands to re- 
ceive the bracelets, or I will blow your head off." 
Chips did not wink, held his hands by his side, 
and said in a calm, dignified way, "Captain, you 
can kill me, but you would not live three minutes 
afterward." He knew the men and told the truth. 
The captain, instead of browbeating the men, was 
completely cowed himself. He comprehended in 
an instant the conditions he was up against. He 
dropped the pistol to his side and retired with the 
officers, handcuffs and all. The next day a larger 
boat came alongside and all the crew got in. They 
marched up to the Consul's office for a memorable 
interview. The Consul was a dignified man, and 
asked the reason for the interview. He said he 



79 

had got the communication that the boy had 
drawn up. He stated that it was a strong presen- 
tation; that the voyage had been unsuccessful so 
far; but there was nothing shown that would 
justify him in discharging the men from the ship. 
Immediately one of the hotheads commenced a 
tirade that caused the Consul to terminate the in- 
terview with the statement that if the crew did 
not return quickly and peaceably to the ship they 
would be placed in the fort. The fort was a prison. 
The men elected to go to the fort and they were 
quickly transferred there. Bread and water, noth- 
ing else, was the fare in that resort. The next 
day all the crew, except the boy, Chips, and 
another named Montrose, considered that the 
ship's fare was preferable to the bread and water 
diet of the prison, gave in, and were conducted 
to the ship. The three mentioned said that noth- 
ing had developed to change their minds. The 
ship made off from port and the three thought 
that they were elected for a long term in durance 
vile ; but no, the ship returned in five days and the 
three were escorted aboard without being asked 
if they were willing or not. They were placed in 
the lazaret and the ship proceeded on her voy- 
age. The next day they rejoined the crew with- 
out any further molestation. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The between season cruise was to the southard, 
through the Straits of Sunda, where later the 
greatest cataclysm of modern times occurred. 
During this eruption the top of a mountain was 
blown off and the waters of the straits left their 
bed, showing a line of volcanic fire at the bottom. 
The noise of the explosion was heard for a thou- 
sand miles. The pumice stone emitted covered 
the ocean so as to impede the sailing of ships. 
Tidal waves were created that washed high up 
the coasts of North and South America, as well 
as the western coasts of the Pacific Ocean. Red 
sunsets were noticed all around the earth, created 
by the volcanic matter thrown into the upper re- 
gions of the atmosphere. Although the country 
around the straits were thinly populated, over 
thirty thousand human beings were destroyed. 
When the news of this catastrophe reached the 
boy, years afterward, he had the whole region 
clearly defined to his mind as it was photographed 
in his memory during the slow beating through 
the straits. 

The ship proceeded on its voyage across the In- 
dian ocean to an island near the coast of Africa. 
This island, it is believed, was never approached 
by a vessel before. The natives swarmed out in 



8i 

their war canoes holding about thirty men each, 
all armed with bows and arrows, also war clubs. 
They were in fighting trim, entirely naked. The 
only substance on their person was a band of 
finely plaited colored grass around the arm oi 
each head man in the boat. Their hair was worked 
up high and powdered colored earths ornamented 
the same. The ship's crew were all armed with 
lances and after various signs passed, only one of 
the natives' crews were allowed aboard of the ship 
at a time. When the preliminaries were settled, 
one of the savages jumped from his boat and 
swam to the ship. He pulled himself up by the 
chains, sprang over the rail and walked forward. 
Nothing seemed to attract his attention until 
reaching the heel of the bowsprit, he saw a big 
American sow that had come aboard the ship as 
a small pig. All the islands have pigs that never 
grow large. Their bodies are short and their 
heads are at least one-third the length of the pig. 
They are savage creatures and a number together 
will tackle a man. The native, seeing the im- 
mense sow, with the same grunt as the diminutive 
beast he was acquainted with, was surprised and 
showed it by slapping his leg, singing out at the 
same time in a loud voice, "Hi, Hi." The rest 
of the crew immediately sprang out of the boat 
and piled on deck. They all rushed to the sow 
and kept up a chattering for a long time. That 



82 

was the only thing they wanted to see. After be- 
ing satisfied, they jumped over the rail and swam 
to their boat. The rest of the crews took turns 
in the same manner to see the sow. 

The possibility of trade occurred to the old 
man, as the captain is always called aboard ship. 
Various signs were gone through to show the 
desire. At last, one of the natives showed a small 
piece of tortoise shell. It was made plain to him 
that a quantity of such material would bring 
trade. A boat started for the shore and soon re- 
turned loaded with the precious stuff. Various 
articles were shown for barter, but nothing 
seemed worthy until a short-handled axe met their 
unqualified approval. Then began the heaping 
of shell on deck and negative nods were made to 
increase the quantity until the heap contained all 
they had. Then an axe was given to the head 
man, who swam to his boat holding the axe high 
in the air. This operation was repeated as other 
boats were sent to the shore for additional sup- 
plies, until the ship had all the shell and the na- 
tives all the axes, twelve in number. The boy was 
clerk of the ship and he knew the case of axes 
cost twelve dollars when put aboard the ship. The 
shell was sold for eight hundred dollars at Hono- 
lulu. The next day, black fish appearing, several 
were killed. After taking off the blubber the car- 
casses were allowed to drift away. The natives 



83 

swarmed around and towed them to shore, when 
they had a high old feast, as fires were seen at 
night all over the hills. The feast of gluttony 
caused the natives to sleep all the next day for 
they did not appear. The third day, the calm 
continuing that caused our stay at the island, the 
war canoes appeared again and one boat's crew at 
a time, as before, was allowed aboard the ship. 
Several of the large bows, over six feet long, were 
obtained by the boy. They were splendid weap- 
ons, woven all over with different colored grasses, 
and could throw an arrow out of sight over the 
water. These people were cannibals. They were 
splendid looking animals, with tall, well-shaped 
bodies and round limbs. They were entirely un- 
acquainted with white people, as this ship's crew 
was most likely the first they had ever met. To- 
bacco in any of its forms was without their knowl- 
edge. The boy induced one of the fellows to seat 
himself beside the cook in his galley and then 
pulled the short blackened pipe from the cook's 
mouth and forced the same between the savage's 
teeth. That caused him to spring up immediately, 
and jumping over the rail, swimming quickly to 
his boat. The pipe was spat out on deck, break- 
ing in its fall, and the boy had to be lively in get- 
ting away from the enraged cook, who made for 
him with a cleaver to chastise him for being the 
cause of the pipe's loss, a relic of several years* 



84 

use, while producing its rich, brown color. While 
a lot of the savages were gathered in the waist of 
the ship, the boy received a command that neces- 
sitated his passing through the group. He placed 
his hands together in front to make a passage. 
The savages fell back, right and left, until one 
was met on the outskirts who sprang in the air 
like a deer, at the same time backwards. The mo- 
tion of the well-shaped fellow was so graceful that 
it created surprise and the boy stopped with the 
remark, "You are a gentleman." The savage 
repeated back, like an echo, "You are a gentle- 
man." This was astounding. The call for duty 
was forgotten. Every endeavor was made to in- 
duce a repetition, or the utterance of more English 
words, without any result otherwise than a blank 
look that might have appeared in the eyes of a 
cow. 

Late this day the savages aboard ship suddenly 
sprang into the water, swimming rapidly to their 
boat, and all the boats' crews were noticed string- 
ing their bows, trying them ; taking up their war 
clubs, looking them over, and pointing to a dis- 
tant point of land for which they soon began to 
paddle. At the same time the ship's crew noticed 
some boats clearing the point. Evidently a battle 
between two savage tribes would shortly occur. 
All the crew were anxious to see the fight, but 
fate decided otherwise, for at this time a breeze 



85 

filled the sails that had been idly flapping against 
the spars for three days, causing the ship to rap- 
idly leave the island in the distance. 

The cruise continued eastward and northward 
along the China coast, across the Yellow Sea and 
up the Japan Sea to Hackadada. The ship was 
just about rounding the point to go into port, 
when a terrific northeast gale sprang upon us at 
8 o^clock in the evening. The gale was too heavy 
to beat against, therefore the ship had to run be- 
fore it under bare poles. The boy, who was con- 
sidered the best helmsman aboard ship, was at 
the wheel. After his trick of two hours was up, 
the captain asked him if he could stand another 
trick. That question was asked every two hours 
until the gale broke at 8 o'clock the next morning. 
The answer was always *'Yes, sir." When the 
gale was over and beating back commenced, the 
captain came to the wheel with the relief. "Go 
below," he said, "and remain as long as you 
wish." During the excitement of the run, steer- 
ing by white water, that is, breakers on rocks, the 
compass being used for the main direction only, 
the boy did not feel tired. The pleasure of guid- 
ing the ship was not unlike the elation caused 
when driving a span of spirited horses. The ex- 
citement over, then tired muscles and brain as- 
serted themselves, causing a collapse that required 
twenty hours of slumber to overcome. When the 



86 

ship again got to the point around which was the 
town, the sails were not set properly for the 
changed direction of the breeze, causing a heavy 
yawning. The harbor was full of Japanese junks, 
anchored with grass hawsers. The boy was again 
at the wheel, and it was a great pleasure to him 
to see the Japanese crazy with excitement, beating 
tom-toms, fearing that the ship when headed di- 
rectly for the centre of their junks, would run 
them down; but the boy knew his ship, and a 
spoke or two would cause the vessel to turn neatly 
around their sterns. 

It was in May when the ship anchored in the 
bay of Hackadada. It was quite cold here, in the 
northern part of Japan. Banks of snow, remain- 
ing from the winter, were on the ground and the 
ship's crew wore the some clothing that they wore 
in the Okhotsk Sea. The Tongoose men, who 
were then held as slaves by the Japs, were pulling 
about the harbor, clothed only with a tapa. It 
could hardly be called pulling, however, as they 
stood up in their boats sculling with oars at the 
sides. Japan at this date was not an open coun- 
try. Only in a few ports could foreign vessels 
enter, and the crews would be bambooed if they 
went more than about a half mile from shore. The 
ship was fired upon when rounding the southern 
point of Japan ; but the round shot fell short in 
the water. There were two parties, one in favor 



87 

of opening up the country and the other opposed. 
In Hackadada the governing class was opposed. 
One day in going up town two dead Japanese 
were seen lying in the street. They had been run 
through with swords. The explanation given 
was that they had expressed themselves as favor- 
ing foreigners and the police had killed them. The 
first time the boy roamed in the city he went into 
a small shop to buy some trinket. The proprietor 
was very affable and brought out a blank book 
in which he requested something being written 
by saying "Write." The book contained a num- 
ber of sentences written by visitors, therefore, 
something suitable was written. The Japanese 
pointed to the first word and said *'What?" The 
word was pronounced. This was repeated at each 
word. Then the Japanese read or pronounced 
every word correctly. He could do the same with 
all written in the book depending upon memory, 
as he did not know one letter from another. The 
boy became very chummy with this fellow during 
several visits. One day, after writing something 
in his book and going through the ''What" 
process, the Japanese suddenly scowled and 
throwing up his hands pushed the boy away. This 
was too much to stand. With fists doubled up, a 
spring was made for the native; but then he re- 
ceived a reassuring smile and heard the words, 
"You no see," and with signs let the boy know 



that a policeman was passing, and that if he saw 
them speaking pleasantly together, the result 
would be the loss of the Japanese's head. 

A visit was made to a money changer and a 
tempo, worth about six cents, was, by signs, di- 
rected to be changed into "cash,'' a small iron coin 
with a hole in the centre. The man, instead of 
counting the "cash," with his two hands pushed 
from a large pile a lot of the small coins. The 
boy filled his two pockets with the cash and 
marched out, feeling quite wealthy. He soon 
reached a stand on the street containing sweets. 
He took up a small confection about the size of a 
little finger, and handed out three cash. A de- 
cided shake of the head impelled the offering of 
more cash. This was continued until all the cash 
was in the hands of the dealer, and with a doubt- 
ful expression he allowed the boy to depart in 
possession of the sweet. With depleted pockets, 
he found a posted man who informed that the 
confection was the most expensive on the stand. 
If he had taken up almost any other kind a few 
cash would have been suf^cient. A man could 
be shaved for three cash and the small money 
had a wide use in producing service. Laborers 
received only a few cash for a day's work. Since 
the opening up of Japan, however, the wages have 
gone up immensely, altho still very low according 
to American standards. 



CHAPTER X. 

After leaving Hackadada the ship made for the 
Arctic Ocean, where the luck changed, for up to 
that time only the small sperm whale taken off the 
River Platte, making only eight barrels, and a few 
barrels of black fish oil taken in the Indian Ocean, 
was the only result of many months' cruising over 
the seas. When sailing up past Indian Point, 
Eastern Siberia, an Indian was shipped. He was 
a noted walrus hunter and could speak a few 
words of English. Vermin was soon found on 
him in such quantities that it was necessary to 
remove his skin clothing, which was sewed up in 
canvas so none could escape, and he was given 
the same clothing that the rest of the men wore. 
The misery of the man was painful to observe. 
He suffered so much with cold that in a few days 
his skin clothing had to be returned to him, after 
as thorough a cleaning as possible. Here was a 
man born and brought up amid the snows and ice 
of Northern Siberia, who could not stand the cli- 
mate clothed in the same clothing that was found 
comfortable by the southern crew. Take the in- 
habitants of the Arctic Circle, clothe and feed 
them the same as men from the south, who brave 
the rigors of the northern seas, and they would all 
die off, leaving an uninhabited zone. 



go 

Much information was gained from the Indian 
during the run up to and through the Behring 
Strait. He told of his people being driven away 
from a country where large trees grew, many, 
many years ago, when the stars were new, by men 
on animals (horses) clothed in iron (armor). 
His people were afraid to go back and learned to 
love the barren earth and rocks, where no vestige 
of foliage exists. The people live in walrus hide 
tents near the seashore in summer, but go back 
in the interior and build huts of ice for their win- 
ter quarters. Their occupation while at the sea- 
shore is hunting the seal, walrus and whales, the 
meat of which they store for winter use. If at the 
time of removal from the interior to shore or from 
the sea back, any one is too old or feeble to stand 
the journey, then it becomes the duty of the near- 
est relative to kill them. The Indian told of 
killing his mother. The news was received with 
horror and so expressed. *'\Vhy," said the In- 
dian, ''you suppose I leave her to be eaten by 
wolves or some other wild animal? No, she 
speak me kill her and I kill her." The mode of 
burial is to sew the bodies up in dried walrus hide 
wrapped around with animal sinews in such a 
manner that no wild animal can get at the de- 
parted, then they are left on the rocks. If a na- 
tive dies in a hut or tent, the body is never taken 
out of the opening used by the living, but a new 



91 

Opening is made for that purpose. Walrus hides 
are the currency of the country. Five will buy a 
pretty good wife; but ten will buy the best. These 
people have a moral code which keeps the women 
virtuous. They are short, moderately thick-set 
and white. Partial blindness is common, to avoid 
which they wear hollow bone about an inch long 
fastened over their eyes by sinews, to protect 
them from the glare of the sun on the snow. 
Their manner of capturing the whale is ingenious. 
They will gather around the whale in their skin- 
covered boats, when he comes up to breathe, and 
thrust spears having bladders fastened to them 
in his blubber in such numbers that the whale 
cannot go down. Then they kill him with bone 
lances. 

When in the Arctic Ocean the business of the 
voyage commenced lively, for soon was heard 
from the crow's nest the welcome sound of 'There 
she blows." The boats were in the water quickly 
and soon one of the boats fastened. A lively bat- 
tle commenced, for the whale proved a fighter. 
Most bow-head whales are inert and easily killed ; 
but this one was found to be an exception. He 
pulled the boat lively through the water, taking 
out a good deal of line in sounding. The crew 
pulled it in again and down he wxnt carrying 
more line. This operation was repeated several 
times, when tiring, the line was pulled in and 



92 

the officer changed places with the boat steerer, 
who throws the harpoon to fasten. This chang- 
ing of places always occurs after fastening, for 
the officer always kills the whale. The lance was 
thrust once, when the huge beast threw his flukes 
around under another boat coming up, contain- 
ing the boy. Up went the fluke bearing the boat 
on top, high in the air, crushing it into kindling 
wood. Down came the men in the water cov- 
ered with floating ice, in which they had to swim 
until picked up by the remaining boats. The 
whale made another short sounding. On reach- 
ing the surface again he was killed. When fas- 
tened alongside by the fluke chain it was gener- 
ally thought to be a two-hundred barrel fellow, 
but he only stowed down one hundred barrels. 
The whalebone was unusually long and fine look- 
ing. Several whales were secured in rapid suc- 
cession, keeping the try works busy. 

A spell of a number of days then occurred in 
which no whales were raised, and one day the 
boats were lowered for walrus. They were swim- 
ming around in the water and a large number 
were on the floating ice. Indian John was landed 
on the ice, upon his request, and he stationed him- 
self alongside of a hole, with a spear, watching. 
He sat awaiting the possible coming up of a wal- 
rus where he was left. When the boats ap- 
proached the ice all the walrus thereon slipped in 



93 

the water and the boats were soon engaged in 
killing them. During the engagement four of 
the boats were pierced by walrus tusks, evidently 
not intentional, but in throwing their heads 
around when the boats were on top of them they 
could hardly escape doing the injury. Forty of 
the beasts were killed and towed to the ship, 
where they tried out about fifty barrels of oil. 
When the Indian was taken off the field of ice 
late in the afternoon, it was found that the mighty 
hunter had not secured a single trophy. He 
would have been content to watch that hole for 
a week to secure a single animal; but the ship's 
crew worked differently. 

The seasons change very rapidly in the Arctic 
Ocean. The sun had been setting towards mid- 
night for several days. The boy was in the crow's 
nest during the midwatch, for it was broad day- 
light all night, when he was astonished to see 
the sun go down to near the horizon and glide 
along to the east, and then begin to rise again. 
For eight days the sun never went below the hori- 
zon. A few weeks afterward it was dark at four 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

A short time after the first walrus hunt the 
boats were lowered again for them. The weather 
soon changed to a rather high wind and became 
bitterly cold. The boats were separated after 
securing a few of the animals. Soon a walrus 



94 

was raised to leeward on top of toadstool ice, 
that is, ice that had been washed out on the sea 
level so as to form a shape like a toad stool. Wal- 
rus and seal will lie on the ice for a very long 
time, and the smell from a lot of them when to 
leeward is appallingly bad. This beast must have 
laid for days, to give the sea time to hollow out 
the base of his resting place. The second mate, 
on whose boat the boy was, determined to run 
down for this animal. A considerable sea had 
developed, and when the boat was alongside of 
the icy support for the beast, the boat steerer had 
to throw his harpoon directly upward to strike 
the game. Immediately on feeling the iron, the 
huge beast tumbled off the ice directly over where 
the boat was; but luckily, a sea washed the boat 
away from the ice at the same time. All the star- 
board oars were broken. If it had not been for 
the sea pushing the boat away the animal would 
have fallen directly into the boat, inevitably caus- 
ing the death of all the crew. The walrus was 
soon killed ; then the position of the boat and its 
crew developed. There it was miles to the lee- 
ward and a thick fog coming on, blotting out the 
sun ; no ship in sight and its actual position being 
in doubt. The game had to be cast adrift and 
the boat's crew, with the few oars remaining, 
began to pull laboriously to windward. It was 
early in the morning before the boat reached the 



95 

ship, and the exhausted crew had to be hauled 
aboard with Hnes. It was no unusual thing for 
boats crews to be thus hauled aboard, thoroughly 
numbed and inert with cold. 

Soon whales were seen again and a number 
were got, enough to make the season's catch 
amount to eight hundred barrels. 

One day, late in the season, during a very 
thick fog, which limited vision to six or eight 
feet and an extremely light breeze blowing, those 
on deck noticed another ship's flying jib-boom 
alongside of theirs moving slowly. On it came, 
breaking off the spritsail-yard and then fouling 
the anchorstock, snapping off the heavy timber 
as though it was a lead pencil; proceeding, the 
starboard fore-rigging next went, cut through 
as with a mighty knife. Then the ships parted 
company for a few minutes, when the stranger 
swung around the stern carrying away the spank- 
erboom, and then disappeared in the fog. The 
foretopgallantmast was snapped off close to the 
topmast during the contact. The boy was below 
during the first touch of the ship; but the call, 
"All hands on deck!" caused him to spring out 
of his bunk. While hastily dressing he ran his 
right leg between his pantaloons and his draw- 
ers. As soon as his head appeared out of the 
scuttle, the mate ordered him aloft to send down 
the heel of the topgallantmast. It was bitterly 



96 

cold and all the standing rigging was frozen as 
stiff as steel. In running up the shrouds he struck 
a broken ratline that stuck out like a knife. This 
pierced his pantaloons on the right side and tore 
them down to his shoe. There was no time to 
halt, besides he felt flattered to be detailed for 
such an important job. With the bare skin of 
his leg exposed, he proceeded with his work ; but 
when he sang out, ''Lower away," and began to 
descend, then it was apparent that his leg had 
become frozen. Lying on deck, salt water was 
thrown on him until life came to his leg, causing 
great pain. 

The fore-rigging had to be repaired imme- 
diately. It was too stiff to work until it was bent 
over to the cook's galley and thawed out. Then 
the necessary repairs were made. With the 
shrouds hanging loose, the foremast was in dan- 
ger until they were fastened again to the dead- 
eyes. The rest of the damage was soon made 
good. The crew had a good example of the im- 
mense force exerted by the collision of two ships, 
moving along when under scarcely any steerage- 
way. 



CHAPTER XI. 

When about to enter the Arctic on this first 
trip to that inhospitable region, the mate told the 
men that the stove was ready for the forecastle 
and they could place it when they wanted. The 
boy argued with his mates to refuse the stove. 
His point was that a stove in the contracted quar- 
ters of the forecastle, where the men would be 
coming in soaking wet, would be unwholesome; 
that there was sufficient body warmth in the men, 
crowded together to prevent suffering. He got 
them to consent to a trial, and they were so well 
satisfied that no stove went up that season or the 
one that followed. All the other ships had stoves, 
with the result that their crews suffered greatly 
with colds and sore throats, while the old Mount 
Wallaston's crew never had a case of sickness 
aboard. 

While cruising along in the Arctic, the ship 
stopped at Icy Cape, Point Barrow, and other 
places, where the natives were met with. They 
were as previously described and wanted tobacco 
badly. They called it "tebarma," and various 
trades were made with them for this coveted 
soother. They also wanted needles. The boy 
had a paper of big ones that seemed good to their 
eyes and he traded them for walrus tusks, scrim- 



98 

schon work in ivory and other articles. The 
weather became very stormy and the cold very 
intense. The seas beating over the forward part 
of the ship would freeze in large masses of ice on 
deck. The ship was headed for the south and the 
run for Behring Strait began. When nearing 
Behring Island a vast field of ice was noticed, 
driven by the wind and tides toward the Strait. 
If this got to the opening first then the ship could 
not pass, and it would have been compelled to 
stop all winter in that desolate region ; so all sail 
was put on to force the vessel ahead of the ice. 
Royals were carried when, without compulsion, 
close-reefed topsails would have been all the sail 
out. The vessel made the point around which 
it was necessary to pass to get into the Strait 
only a few minutes before the immense flow of 
ice bore down and crashed into Behring Island 
with a sound that could not be equalled by many 
parks of artillery. If the vessel had been delayed 
only a very short time, it would have been crushed 
like an eggshell. 

The bargain made with Indian John when he 
came aboard the ship was that he should be pro- 
vided with food and given all the walrus hides 
obtained. Over seventy hides had been secured, 
enough to have made the Indian independently 
wealthy. When the vessel got to Indian Point, 
the place where the Indian was to be put ashore, 



99 



it was found that the ice was jammed against the 
land for miles out, making a landing impossible. 
The ship's crew told him of the fine country that 
would be met to the southard, where big trees 
grew ; where the grass covered the earth, roamed 
over by fine animals; where bright flowers per- 
fumed the air, and gaily plumed birds made the 
day gay with their songs. All this was rot to the 
Indian. He wanted to get on the barren rocks 
where his home was. He became wild and at- 
tempted to get over the rail onto the floating ice, 
which would have meant death to him. About 
twenty miles below the Point was found a narrow 
opening in the ice to the shore. A boat was low- 
ered, and with the Indian aboard with three wal- 
rus skins, all it could carry, the perilous passage 
was made. It was a dangerous passage for the 
ice was liable at any time to close up and crush 
the boat. When the shore was approached a 
heavy sea was found beating upon it. The Indian 
made a risky jump and landed upon a large rock. 
The last view of the stranger was when he sprang 
from the rock to the shore and ran like a deer 
to his far, desolate home, leaving great wealth be- 
hind, for the walrus hides in the boat were thrown 
overboard as well as all those on the ship. These 
hides, at that time, had no commercial value in 
the market. 

Getting the ship in trim and cleaning bone oc- 



lOO 



cupied the crew when saiHng to the southard. 
This cleaning of the bone is a very important task. 
The whalebone that hangs straight down in the 
month is dark colored and with a fringed edge 
to which the very small shell fish, which are the 
food of the bowhead, becomes attached when the 
whale moves slowly through the water on the 
surface. When a sufficient quantity is taken in, 
the mouth closes and the food is forced in the 
stomach. This bone is spaded down from the 
upper jaw, leaving about a foot of gum attached, 
which has to be scraped off and then the bone is 
hung in the rigging to dry. One day when the 
ship's rigging was all decorated with bone, a quick 
gale sprang up, causing lively action to get it 
housed and to prepare the ship for the storm. 

The ship made a quick run to Hilo, Sandwich 
Islands. The stores that were left on the previous 
visit were taken aboard, and a lot of natives were 
sent back in the country to procure a timber from 
which to make an anchorstock to replace the one 
carried away in the Arctic. With oxen they 
hauled the immense timber for miles over lava 
flows to the beach, where "Chips," the ship's car- 
penter, hewed it into shape. That operation re- 
quired several days to accomplish. At night, after 
the first day's work, the boy was sent to bring 
Chips back to the ship. He jumped into the boat, 
leaving his tools spread on the ground. He was 



asked if it was correct to leave the valuable im- 
plements exposed to theft. He replied that they 
were perfectly safe; that the natives were honest 
as the missionaries had not made much progress 
on that island in teaching the natives the ways 
of white men. 

When the anchor stock was finished, prepara- 
tions were made to tow to the ship. That was 
found impossible, as it sank like a rock. Even- 
tually it was lashed between two boats and thus 
carried to the vessel. 

From Hilo the ship proceeded to Honolulu, 
where the oil and bone taken was shipped back 
to the States. During this visit to Honolulu the 
boy roamed back in the town and eventually got 
into a printing office where he met old Mr. Shu- 
brim, the foreman, who was known favorably all 
over our western coast as well as on the Islands. 
Mr. Shubrim noticed the boy looking on at the 
men setting type, and during the conversation 
which followed, found out that the boy was con- 
versant with the business. He immediately 
showed much interest and said that he was greatly 
in need of assistance ; but when informed that the 
boy belonged to a ship he knew that he could not 
get help from him. The boy was informed that 
when he got clear from the vessel to come imme- 
diately to the office and take a case. That visit 
prompted an idea that had never entered the head 



of the boy before. He rather hked the sailor's 
life, but with the new idea impressed on his mind, 
he determined to leave the ship. There was in 
port the ship Dreadnaught, that had sailed for 
years in the old Black Ball Line between New 
York and Liverpool, carrying passengers before 
being replaced by the encroaching steamers. The 
old ship was empty and the boy got aboard, stow- 
ing away in the chain locker with some provis- 
ions. Altho the ship was searched, the boy was 
not found, and he remained in hiding until his 
ship had left. Then he came out. His liberty 
was brief indeed, for immediate arrest awaited 
him. The ship returned in a few hours and he 
was taken aboard. This ruse of leaving the har- 
bor is often adopted, knowing that runaways will 
then think that they are safe; but the kikoes, or 
policemen, have orders to arrest on appearance. 
The ship returns and all is over. 

After the ship left Honolulu it proceeded on 
the regular between season's cruise. With fair 
winds and pleasant weather the lower California 
coast was made. Devil-fish, or California Gray- 
backs, was the game. This is a small species of 
whale that seek the coast during the breeding 
season. They are very pugnacious and great 
caution is necessary in killing them to prevent 
the loss of boats or men. The boats got a number 
and towed them to the ship, anchored in a little 



I03 

bay. One of the beasts upset the captain's boat 
with his flukes, and the men were all swimming 
around, occasionally resting by holding on to the 
bottom of the boat. The captain could not swim 
and the crew got him up on the overturned craft, 
where he crouched in bad humor. There was 
quite a sea on, causing the boat to toss about 
badly, making the captain's position far from 
pleasant. He sang out to the men to stop hauling 
on the boat, forgetting for the instant that the 
sea only was to blame. Soon the crew was picked 
up by other boats and all was serene. The Cali- 
fornia Grayback has the usual blubber on the out- 
side, and also has what is called gut fat, or fat 
on the intestines. The operation of getting this 
fat is very disagreeable, and all were pleased 
when a Spanish Don appeared over the sand 
hills with a lot of Indians. He made an agree- 
ment with the old man to take over the carcasses 
after the blubber had been removed, haul them up 
on the beach, cut out the interior fat, and after 
trying out the oil place it in barrels, receiving as 
his share one-half of the product. The old man 
agreeing to furnish a try-pot, the barrels and a 
boat during the operations, the Don's share of 
the oil to be taken over by the ship at an agreed 
price. Everything proceeded well, the Indians 
working like beavers within half a mile of the 
anchored ship, and quite a number of barrels of 



104 

oil were made. It came time to change whaling 
grounds. The next day an accounting was to 
be had with the Don. The latter, in an interview, 
expressed himself as highly pleased with his work 
and the results. All hands turned in with the ex- 
ception of an anchor watch on deck. The night 
was very dark. The next morning, when the 
crew turned out, the numbers of men who had 
been so busy on the beach had disappeared; also 
all the barrels of oil, try-pot and boat, had passed 
from the vision. Quickly two boat's crews were 
marshalled. They went to the shore, finding that 
all the lost property had been loaded on drag 
poles, leaving well marked trails. A pursuit was 
started. It was kept up by the men for hours; 
but the unaccustomed tramping over the sand 
proved exhausting. The markings of the horses 
and drag poles showed that the fleeing men were 
gaining rapidly over the pursuers, therefore the 
trail was given up and the men returned discon- 
solate to the ship. It was supposed that the Span- 
iards were not enterprising ; but this old Don was 
enterprising enough to take from the ship valu- 
able property, and had performed the act after 
the most affable, impressive interviews. 

The sand of the beach was full of clams and 
the crew enjoyed a good feed from them. The 
day before leaving several barrels were filled with 
the rich bivalves, and the men expected to enjoy 



105 

them for some time, but the next day they had to 
be thrown overboard on account of smeUing very 
ancknt. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The ship after leaving the Cahfornia coast 
cruised amongst the various groups of Pacific 
Islands. The v^eather v^as generally fine, and 
altho the search was for sperm whales, the pass- 
ing amongst these islands of the sea was impres- 
sive and grand. Many were mere coral atolls 
fringed with cocoanut trees. Many were large 
and inhabited with gracious savages. Many were 
mountainous, and some were populated by treach- 
erous natives who had to be avoided. One time, 
in passing near one of the latter lands, the wind 
died down. In the distance many war canoes 
were observed leaving the shore in the direction 
of the ship. All hands were armed, prepared to 
give the devils a warm reception. The natives 
gained rapidly on the ship and all aboard expected 
lively work in providing them with hospitable 
graves in the ocean ; but luckily, when the rascals 
got within a few hundred yards of the vessel the 
wind sprang up and soon the savages were left 
jabbering in their boats. They sprang up show- 
ing their murderous war clubs, encircled with 
shark's teeth, and sent many arrows which fell 
short in the water. 



io6 



Amongst the islands inhabited by friendly na- 
tives, many events happened that gave the crew 
much enjoyment. The bright sun, plenty of 
fruit, the hearty a/o/ian^wi (gracious salutation) 
of our naked visitors, all made up an atmosphere 
of bliss. On meeting the long, low boats, gener- 
ally manned by at least twenty, visiting their 
friends on other islands, especially if met on 
moonlight nights, gave a scene of enchantment, 
all dipping their paddles in unison, chanting in 
tune a low-voiced monotone that sounded grand 
as they passed away in the distance. 

The old man never had any confidence in him- 
self. He would take the sun several times and 
figure out the results with many misgivings. That 
he was not correct in his figuring was proven 
many times during the voyage, as he was contin- 
ually making land miles out of the true course. 
One dark, stormy night, when the boy was in the 
lookout, with no thought of land, a streak of 
moonlight broke through the clouds, lighting up 
a rocky shore. The light was for an instant only, 
but was sufficient to show the terrible danger 
ahead. A quick cry of "Breakers ahead" caused 
the officer of the deck to promptly order the 
wheel hard up, and the ship turned as on a pivot, 
her stern pounding an instant in the breakers as 
she passed out of danger. The old man thought 
that the ship was sixty miles to the southard of 



107 

this land. This island was inhabited by canni- 
bals, and if the vessel had run ashore those that 
escaped the breakers and rocks would have been 
killed by the natives. 

Very often during dead calms in warm latitudes 
the men would plunge in the water for a swim. 
One day when becalmed near an island many of 
the crew slipped overboard and were gaily sport- 
ing around the ship in the deep waters. The boy 
swam way beyond the rest, when a cry of sharks 
was heard. Those near the ship soon scrambled 
aboard. The lad made for the vessel in a vigor- 
ous manner. When near he looked up and saw 
the men looking over the rail in an anxious man- 
ner. Two were in the chains and soon as possible 
grasped the boy by the arms, throwing him over 
on the deck. It was noticed that the shark's 
mouth was within an inch of the receding heels. 
This was a close shave. The next day when down 
in a boat, a large shark bit off the blade of one 
of the oars. The sharks have no friends amongst 
sailors. 

At one time during a very heavy gale the ship 
was laying to and the boy was lying on deck 
looking upwards. It was very warm altho the 
crash of the seas and the fierce gale blowing 
against the rigging made so much noise that one 
could not hear another speak. Soon the boy no- 
ticed a shadowy form coming over the ship, be- 



io8 

tween the fore and mainmast. It was quickly 
made out to be the jibboom of another ship. She 
was also laying to. When both vessels yawned 
in different directions the stranger's jibboom 
fouled the ship's foremast and was snapped off 
close to the nightheads. Then both vessels were 
lying side by side. Without the support of the 
foretopmaststay and the forestay, the foremast 
could not stand in the heavy sea. It broke off 
close to the deck, followed, as in pantomime, by 
the mainmast and then the mizzenmast. Altho 
both crews were hollering like demons, not a 
human voice could be heard. Even the breaking 
of the heavy spars and their crashing falls were 
inaudible. Nothing was heard but the battle of 
the elements. The wreck of the stranger then 
drifted around the stern of the ship, carrying 
away the spankerboom, and then disappeared in 
the darkness as silently as she came. The dam- 
age to the ship was much the same as occurred 
during the collision in the Arctic, noted before. 
The foretopmast was lost. A large section of the 
bulwarks was stoven in. All the boats on the 
starboard side went to destruction. The foreyard 
would also have been carried away if it had not 
been for the quick action of the boy. At the first 
contact one of the stranger's yards fouled the 
foreyard and was on the point of breaking it off 
when the boy noticed the tightening brace on the 



109 

belaying-pin. He sprang forward and threw off 
the brace, which reheved the yard, allowing it to 
swing around safely. In getting at the belaying- 
pin it was necessary to push aside the second 
mate who was standing directly alongside. The 
only thanks he got was a scowl from the officer 
for thrusting him aside, forgetting it was owing 
to his slow wit only that made the action neces- 
sary. There is an old superstition amongst sail- 
ors that ships attract one another on the sea. 
No ship had been seen for many days, and to 
have these tw^o drift together in the darkness 
while laying to in the waste of waters a thousand 
miles from any land seems to give a semblance 
of truth to the belief. With the approach of day- 
light the next morning the stranger was seen, a 
mere rolling hulk, miles off on the horizon. The 
wind and sea had died down considerably and a 
boat was sent to offer assistance. In approach- 
ing the stranger, tossing like a log in the water, 
a sea swept the boat against her, causing the 
breaking of the gunwale. The stranger was 
found to be a whaleship named Governor Troop. 
The captain, when offered assistance by the offi- 
cer on boat, appeared to be crazy. He jumped 
up and down on deck and swore like a pirate. He 
ordered the boat away to a very warm place, 
where it is supposed no water exists. He yelled 
out that if his order was not obeyed immediately 



no 



he would blow off the heads of the crew. There 
was nothing to do but return to the ship and re- 
port. The vessel remained in sight of the wreck 
all day, and towards night she was seen, with 
temporary spars, making off slowly to some port. 
It was afterwards found out that she got to Hono- 
lulu and was refitted at a cost of twenty thousand 
dollars; then sailing for the Arctic, was caught 
by the Shenandoah, as described later, becoming 
one of the seven vessels burned. 

About this time much stormy weather was met 
with. A succession of gales made the call of 
"All hands on deck" quite common. During one 
cyclonic tempest the water was whirling in heavy 
seas that would twist around, lifting the vessel 
up on top and then give away suddenly, allowing 
the ship to fall with a crash. This peculiar action 
of the water was appalling, causing even the offi- 
cers to become white with apprehension. All the 
men were lashed to belaying-pins, for otherwise 
they would have been swept from the ship. A 
man was made fast to each mast with an axe and 
ordered to cut away when the word should be 
given. The officers feared that such falling blows 
would drive the masts through the bottom of the 
vessel. Luckily the ship ran out of the boiling 
waters before it became necessary to give the 
order, much to the relief of the detailed men, for 
they knew that if the masts were cut away they, 



Ill 

in toppling over, would swing around and ten 
chances to one crush the life out of them. 

During this stormy weather the boy had a 
never-to-be-forgotten dream in his watch below. 
He heard beautiful singing in the distance. The 
day was warm, with hardly a noticeable wind. 
The singing sounded closer and soon it was no- 
ticed to proceed from boats ladened with gaily 
appareled ladies who were pulling towards the 
ship. Soon they reached the tackles that were 
lowered and then the crew run them up, joining 
at the same time in the chorus. When the girls 
tripped on deck many of them were recognized 
as old friends. They began to dance around, 
continuing their beautiful singing, when a heavy 
banging on the scuttle was heard followed by a 
stern command, "All hands on deck" to take in 
the topsails. The contrast between the enchant- 
ing vision and the gale-tossed vessel, laboring in 
heavy seas, was overpowering. 

The vessel approached the Ladrone Islands 
late in the afternoon. The wind was light and 
slow progress made. The anchor was dropped 
long after daylight had departed. The boy 
thought that the ship was not more than a mile 
from shore. He induced a man called Smith, 
but afterwards his real name was found to be 
Montrose, and a chimmoria, as the natives of the 
Ladrone Islands are called, to swim ashore. This 



/ 



112 



chimmoria was considered important on account 
of his claimed ability to talk the language of the 
country. It was found out afterwards that owing 
to leaving the Islands as an infant he knew noth- 
ing of the language. These three men consti- 
tuted the mid-anchor watch, and after 12 o'clock 
they prepared to leave the ship. The native 
could not swim, therefore a large plank which 
was on deck was silently lifted over the side with 
two small diameter casks, which the boy swim- 
ming alongside attempted to lash to the plank, 
one on each end. The casks proved unmanage- 
able, and the boy could not lift the plank in the 
water over them. Soon they got adrift and went 
thumping against the ship in their journey aft, 
much to the consternation of the men, who 
thought that the noise would arouse the officers. 
After waiting some time to find out the result, 
and no officer appearing, the chimmoria was 
placed on the plank, which he sank quite deep in 
the water, and the other two men then began to 
swim to land, pushing the plank between them. 
The distance was found much more than ex- 
pected, and afterwards it was found out that the 
ship was anchored three miles out. The men 
swam until exhausted. The land seemed to re- 
cede. The wind began to spring up, causing 
quite a sea, which was in the face of the runa- 
ways. When nearing the shore heavy breakers 



113 

were noticed. This condition had not entered 
into the calculations of the swimmers, but they 
were too far fagged out to return to the ship. 
They must proceed and soon were tossing in the 
surf. They knew nothing more after getting in 
the breakers. They lost consciousness. The boy 
was the first to regain his senses. When he 
opened his eyes and saw the sun showing that it 
must be at least ten o'clock in the morning, he 
found himself lying bruised on a shaley beach. 
He got up slowly, like Old Rip Van Winkle, 
arousing himself from his twenty years' slumber, 
and looked around. He saw the body of Smith 
about two hundred feet down the beach. He la- 
boriously crept to him, and finding him breathing 
slightly, proceeded to do the resuscitation act. 
After a while he got him on his feet and the two 
went to the chimmoria, who was seen lying 
about three hundred feet further down the shore. 
It was pretty hard to bring him to life, but suc- 
cess followed repeated endeavors. The plank 
was not in sight. The three forlorn creatures, 
leaning on one another, went slowly along the 
shore and crept into a tropical growth of vines. 
Soon they all lost knowledge of events in slum- 
ber. They slept for hours, when the boy awaken- 
ing, heard a whistle far off in the distance. This 
was repeated by others in a semi-circle, and it 
was noticed that the whistles became louder and 



114 

more distinct, showing that the trackers were ap- 
proaching in a curve. They rapidly came closer 
and closer, until a circle of steel machettes sur- 
rounded the elopers. The men holding the weap- 
ons could not be seen on account of the thick 
vegetation. Smith, who was always in trouble 
on account of his thoughtless actions, attempted 
to grab one of the machettes, when the savage 
holder brought it down quickly on the right arm, 
making a bad wound. Then the men were all 
bound with their hands behind them, and marched 
slowly through the tangled undergrowth to an 
old Spanish fort, where they were put into a gun 
embrasure, inhabited previously by chickens, who 
had left a rich deposit of the usual kind. The 
runaways were held in durance vile only a short 
time. Soon they were marched, still bound, to a 
bay, where the ship's crew were found filling casks 
with water and towing them to the vessel. While 
standing there some natives came up and began 
to feel of the boy's body, jabbering in astonish- 
ment. The governor of the island, a fine old 
Spanish Don, who spoke English, was near, and 
being asked the cause of the action, stated that 
the natives thought the men were not human be- 
cause they swam three miles in waters that 
were infested with man-eating sharks to such an 
extent that the inhabitants could not be enticed 
to go to their knees in the sea. The men were 



IIS 

placed in a boat and soon were hoisted on deck, 
when the thongs binding their arms were cut. 
The boy heard the old man say in a whisper to 
the mate, "The rascals should be triced up in the 
rigging by their thumbs" ; but the good old mate 
whispered back that he thought it would be well 
not to do so, as one of them was too good a 
writer, and might cause trouble when they ar- 
rived in port. The only punishment undergone 
was pumping ship for hours. The next day four- 
teen big man-eating sharks were noticed around 
the ship. The crew spaded them until their en- 
trails were exposed ; but still they snapped at food 
thrown into the water. 

After watering up, the old ship cruised after 
the humpback whales. One stormy day when it 
was really too rough to lower, a whale was raised. 
The temptation could not be resisted, however, 
and the boats were lowered. Soon the second 
mate's boat, in which was the boy, fastened. Then 
began a never-to-be-forgotten run. The whale 
sounded, taking out two tubs of line, came up, 
dragging the boat through the heavy seas, mak- 
ing a wall of water high on each side. The men 
worked with a will hauling in on the line, until 
the whale sounded again, taking out all the line 
hauled in. During these soundings and hauling 
in it was noticed that another one of the boats 
came very close to the running boat, but the mo- 



ii6 

tion was so fast that the boat's crew did not know 
that they had grazed the other. A whale boat 
always carries four harpoons in the bows when 
after whales. These are so placed as to be readily 
grasped by the boat steerer in case the first misses. 
During a slackness of the line the boat raised to 
the top of a sea, when a flag was seen flying on 
the ship which was a signal to cut the line and 
return. Then the boat steerer noticed that one 
of the harpoons in his arck had toggled. He was 
very much surprised, but did not know the rea- 
son why until returning to the ship. Then was 
found aft, lying on his breast, one of the crew of 
the other boat, with a ghastly Avound in his back. 
During the almost instantaneous passing of the 
boats one of the irons had entered the man's body 
just back between the shoulder blades. The old 
man sewed the wound up and he was taken for- 
ward to the forecastle. Very stormy weather 
was met with for weeks afterwards, and the poor 
man lay tossing about in his bunk, causing the 
stitches to often break, necessitating the agony of 
another sewing. The man seldom ever groaned, 
standing the pain like a stoic. That he ever re- 
covered was a miracle; but he did, and returned 
to duty, hearty and strong as ever. The only 
after effect noticed was a slight stoop to remind 
him of the terrible ordeal he had passed through. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The between-season cruise ending, the ship 
made again for the Arctic Ocean. The ice to the 
southard of Behring Strait was met with during 
a dense fog. The fog lowered so that the man 
in the crow's nest could see over it. He sang 
out, "A vessel trying out on the starboard bow." 
The third mate ran up and had hardly got in the 
crow's nest before he sang out, "A steamer on 
the starboard bow." On hearing this the old 
man, who had never before during the voyage 
been above deck, sprang in the rigging, with his 
spyglass swung across his back, and soon orders 
came thick and fast, to sheet home the foresail, 
mainsail, set the aftersail, loosen the flying jib, 
the topgallant sails and royals. In a few minutes 
the ship was under full sail on the wind. The fog 
then lifted and those on deck saw a steamer, after- 
wards known as the rebel cruiser Shenandoah* 
which had evidently captured seven whale ships, 
for they were seen near at hand. The crews were 
in their boats, fastened to a hawser trailing be- 
hind the steamer. A gun on the stern was trained 
on the men. At the same instant, all at once, the 
ships blazed up with fire and burned fiercely. At 
the same time the steamer, discovering the ship, 
started in pursuit. It was gaining rapidly when 
the fog descended again, shutting off vision com- 



ii8 

pletely. The old man then gave orders to go 
before the wind. The ship sailed to the southard 
to St. Paul's Island, where it remained for a 
month under the ice, fearing the reappearance of 
the Shenandoah. It was learned later that the 
steamer continued after the ship in the direction 
it was sailing on the wind, and not seeing the 
vessel again, sailed to the south the same day, 
after placing aboard the bark Nancy all the cap- 
tured crews. The Nancy was ordered to make 
any port she pleased. The crowded vessel event- 
ually got to San Francisco. It was also learned 
how the cruiser got to the fleet. She did not in- 
tend to go so far north, and was not provided 
with necessary charts. The rebel captain thought 
that the fleet was in the Okhotsk Sea, and pro- 
ceeded there, capturing, the day he entered, the 
Nancy, the only whaler in the Sea. He learned 
from her crew that all the rest of the fleet had 
sailed for the Arctic. He then called the cap- 
tured crew together and stated that he would give 
$2,000 gold to any one of them who would pilot 
his vessel to the north. The mate of the Nancy 
accepted the offer. A prize crew was placed upon 
the captured vessel and both sailed in search of 
the fleet, which was found and destroyed as re- 
lated. All on board the burned vessels swore that 
they would kill the mate on sight, on account of 
his dastardly renegade action. To show how 



119 

short are human animosities, that fellow was 
harbor master in San Francisco for years after- 
wards, meeting continually men who had sworn 
to take his life. 

The Mount Wallaston, on returning to Beh- 
ring Strait, found it free from ice and sailed into 
the Arctic Ocean. The burning of most of the 
fleet made the w^haling grounds almost free from 
competition and whales were captured in rapid 
succession. Several boats were stove, but no loss 
of men occurred. One large whale fastened to 
proved unusually active. He threw his immense 
flukes up alongside of the boat, breaking all the 
oars on that side, smashing the gunwale, and, 
curving over, knocked off the boy's cap, leaving 
a patch of black skin on his head. If the flukes 
had gone only one-half inch lower the boy's skull 
would have been crushed. On account of losing 
so much time early in the season, the old man 
kept the ship unusually late in the ocean. The 
cold became severe, and during the late lowerings 
the crews suffered greatly. In almost every case 
they had to be hauled out of the boats inert, and 
had to go through the operation of being brought 
to life by dousing of sea water. The catch was 
over one thousand barrels and an immense quan- 
tity of whalebone. The weather becoming 
naughty, the ship was again headed to the south- 
ard. 



120 



In running up through the Behring Sea this 
season large quantities of volcanic ash fell on the 
deck, coming from some volcanoes then in active 
eruption on the coast of Alaska. The ship also 
passed through immense quantities of dead cod- 
fish, covering the sea for many miles. This was 
evidently the result of some subterranean dis- 
turbance. 

On the cruise downward a right whale was met 
with and one of the boats soon fastened. He held 
up the reputation of his species by proving to be 
a first-class fighter. The small eyes of the right 
whale are set so he cannot see forward, but can 
only see over his flukes. A boat can go over his 
head without danger ; but any careless officer who 
attacks over his flukes runs a first-class chance of 
losing his boat and crew. This beast stood on his 
head and thrashed the air with his tail like a 
whiplash. After a long struggle the whale was 
secured without any loss. 

The second day after securing the whale three 
boat crews were picked up. They had lost their 
ship in a fog while lowered for whales and had 
drifted around for three days. They were all 
Portuguese, and, of course, completely famished. 
After being fed up with warm food they got in 
good condition. An American or English crew 
looks with contempt upon these dagoes. An ex- 
tremely severe gale springing up, these men, in- 



121 



Stead of assisting in the working of the ship, fell 
down on their knees and began to pray to their 
patron saint. The boy could not stand this. With 
a swoop he sprang amongst the crowd, knocking 
them over, and after a little persuasion of this 
kind they stood on their feet. The second day 
after picking up these men, their ship hove in 
sight and the transfer was made, greatly to the 
satisfaction of the Mount Wallaston crew. 

The ship shortly arrived at Honolulu. Accord- 
ing to law, a legal voyage is only three years; 
therefore all the crew were entitled to their dis- 
charge, as they had been on board three years 
and six days. Only one man elected to remain. 
He was a peculiar, reticent character. During 
the voyage he never informed as to his history, 
remaining quiet and reserved. He had a first- 
class education and was liked by all. It was 
learned afterward that in going to the Arctic for 
the fourth season he was washed overboard and 
drowned. The second mate who resigned after 
the first season in the Okhotsk, shipped the next 
season in another vessel, and while fastened to a 
whale in the Arctic he thrust his lance into a bone 
in the killing operation. He could not pull the 
lance out, and having foolishly fastened, pre- 
viously, the lance warp around his wrist, the 
whale in sounding carried him out of the boat 
and under the ice. He never appeared again. He 



122 

had borrowed the boy's watch when the vessel 
first made Hilo. It was never returned, and, 
therefore, the boy has every reason to believe that 
it rests at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean with 
the bones of the second mate. Years afterward 
the old Mount Wallaston was crushed in the 
same ice floe that destroyed the Jeanette, during 
the Jeanette expedition to find the North Pole. 
So the timbers of both vessels rest together be- 
neath waters of the Arctic. To show, how- 
ever, the result of correct experience, the whaler's 
crew escaped safely while the men of the Jeanette 
nearly all perished in the fierce cold of Siberia. 

The boy, unacquainted with the formalities 
of revenue and duties, sent his donkey, or chest, 
on shore unaccompanied and proceeded to the 
ofiice, where the captain directed him to get a set- 
tlement of his account. He found the place which 
was upstairs, and met the only occupant, an old 
clerk, seated on a high stool before an old-fash- 
ioned desk. On giving his name, he was told that 
he was indebted to the ship to the amount of 
$320; but the amount could not be collected on 
account of the impoverished condition of the ap- 
plicant. The only thing required was that the 
boy should sign a paper relinquishing all claims 
against the ship. This information was received 
with mild surprise. A demand to see the books 
was met with the statement that they would not 



123 

be understood and again the paper was placed be- 
fore the boy for signature. Insistance caused the 
day-book and ledger to be produced. There it 
was shown that the escapade on the old ship 
Dreadnaught was charged up to the tune of two 
hundred and ten dollars. The swimming act at 
the Ladrone Islands cost two hundred and thirty 
dollars. The six dollars liberty money received 
during the voyage was debited as twelve dollars 
on account of the depreciated condition of the 
American currency at the time. The various ar- 
ticles got out of the slop chest, with three to four 
hundred per cent, profit added, were duly re- 
corded. All these items, balanced with the pro- 
ceeds of the voyage, left the indebtedness as 
stated. It was no use to question the correctness 
of the charges. The boy had to be satisfied. To 
leave the office, after three years and six days of 
hard, laborious toil, without a cent of remunera- 
tion, seemed, however, to be tough. A break was 
made for the door, when the clerk sang out, 
"Here, you have not signed the paper." The boy, 
knowing that the law required a clear balance 
sheet of the voyage, and that the account could 
not be closed without this paper, stated that he 
never made his signature without recompense, 
and that he demanded payment for the act. The 
clerk pleaded that he had to have the books bal- 
anced and said it was a favor to cross off the 



124 

amount owed the ship, all without disturbing the 
boy's determination, however. The result was that 
the clerk brought out a twenty dollar gold piece as 
payment for the signature, which was duly made, 
and all connection ended with the old Mount 
Wallaston. On leaving the office several mem- 
bers of the crew were met, all disconsolate on ac- 
count of not receiving anything. They were told 
of their foolishness in not demanding money for 
their signature, receiving the information with 
due resignation. 

The boy then went to the dock to hunt up his 
donkey. It was found, but upon opening it the 
absence of many curios collected during the voy- 
age was noticed, including some fine articles pro- 
cured in Japan. On inquiry it was found that 
the Custom Officers had condemned the articles 
on account of non-payment of duties. He offered 
to pay the duties, without result. Various ex- 
cuses were given, but the articles never were re- 
covered. The rascals had stolen them, a common 
occurrence in that land of missionary dominance. 
Early in the afternoon a visit was made to Schu- 
brim, who was overjoyed to meet the boy again. 
He stated that he had more work to do than was 
possible, and urged an immediate beginning of 
employment, with the result that the boy was 
soon busy at a case. He had on only an old blue 
denim suit with a pair of sea boots. Good old 



125 

Schubrim supplied fat copy, which netted $38 the 
first week. This seemed a princely income, com- 
pared with the revenue from the whaling voyage. 
The boy remained in the printing office for quite 
a time, and enjoyed himself immensely roaming 
about the Island in off hours. He acquired a 
fair familiarity with the Kanaka language, and 
found the people very agreeable, altho great hypo- 
crites on religious questions. The missionaries 
had only veneered them with church forms. They 
still remained highly immoral, with the free care- 
less ways natural to them long before the incom- 
ing of the white people. Their hoola hoolas were 
enjoyed, and their one, two and three-fingered 
poy w^ere relished greatly. One day in roaming 
the hills, an old naked Kanaka was seen seated 
beside his hut. Greeting him with "Aloha neui/* 
which means a friendly introduction, the native 
arising returned the compliment. A conversation 
was continued in Kanaka. He was asked if he 
ever went to Honolulu. The answer was made 
in a manly style. ''Oura, Oura." (No, no.) 
"The white people make a law that I wear a 
shirt. I no wear a shirt." As he was a splendid 
specimen of manhood standing six feet tall, he 
impressed the boy with his sterling opposition to 
the useless apparel which the governing class was 
trying to force on these harmless people. The 
women only wore, in the towns, a single cotton 



126 

dress cut like a mother hubbard. On horseback, 
straddHng the animal like a man, and throwing a 
gaily-colored cloth in front, they looked very pic- 
turesque. One day, in going over a bridge near 
the city, a woman was noticed lying at the bottom 
of a clear stream, her dress undulating with the 
running water. She appeared motionless, and 
fearing that she was drowned, the boy watched 
her intently. Soon she moved slowly and grace- 
fully to the top, with a handful of vegetation 
which was deposited in a calabash floating on the 
water. Descending again and returning, the cala- 
bash was soon filled and the maiden came on 
shore. A long conversation followed. The na- 
tives use a large quantity of such grasses, taken 
from the bottom of streams, for food. The 
Kanakas, like most native people, make a liquid to 
produce intoxication. The custom is to have vir- 
gins, seated around a calabash, chew a root and 
spit the fluid into the central vessel. This ferments 
almost immediately, and the resultant ''arra" is 
distributed in small shells to the spectators, who 
seem to enjoy the same. It certainly makes 
drunkenness come quickly. The boy never found 
out its taste, as knowledge of the making of it 
satisfied him that his stomach would rebel. 

The government of the Islands was a burlesque. 
The outside people thought that the royal family 
was a power. The fact was that Queen Emma, 



127 

who was officiating when the boy was in Hono- 
lulu, was a black wench, much darker than her 
people, and when she went amongst them she 
was treated with no more respect than any other 
native woman. The heir apparent was a great 
drinker and would often enter a saloon and treat 
all the loungers with liquor at 25 cents a glass, 
then retire to sleep off his too liberal potations. 
The actual governing class were a parcel of rene- 
gades gathered from all parts of the earth, prin- 
cipally, however, from the United States, from 
which they had emigrated to the benefit of that 
country. The missionaries were a power, and 
they seemed to work in with this horde of dissi- 
pated citizens. To call the Islands a kingdom 
was a misuse of the term. The boy strolled one 
day along a long lane that led to the old palace. 
This palace was a low, rambling building, sur- 
rounded by a high board fence. On reaching the 
gate, which was like one leading to a barnyard, 
a Kanaka soldier was noticed on guard. He had 
no shoes and only a pair of pantaloons covered his 
legs, and a shirt, wide open in front, covered his 
body. His musket leaned against a tree and he was 
reclining against the fence. The boy demanded 
entrance. "Oitra, Oiira," was the reply, when 
the stranger grabbed the musket and, pointing it 
at the guard, demanded the gate to be opened. 
The fellow dropped on his knees and pleaded to 



128 

be left alone. After some more fun with the na- 
tive he received back his musket. The boy had 
tested it with the ramrod to find out whether it 
was loaded or not, and finding no load in the bar- 
rel knew that the weapon could be delivered up 
safely. He returned with not a very high opin- 
ion of the army, which consisted of thirty such 
ragamuffins. 

After a long time the boy became restive. The 
confinement of the printing office proved irksome. 
He informed Schubrim that he intended to leave 
and was met with pleadings to remain that were 
hard to resist; but the fever of change was on; 
therefore, soon he was on the water front looking 
for a vessel to carry him to San Francisco. He 
was abundantly able to pay for his passage, but 
the lust of the sea was still forcible and he deter- 
mined to ship. The old bark Smyrnaote was soon 
found, bound the next day for the land of gold. 
The captain was asked if he wanted a sailor. 
Yes, he replied ; but he did not want such a land- 
lubber as our friend. All the sea tan had left dur- 
ing his stay on shore, and the clothing worn was 
far from sailor-like. The boy fired at the old 
man, "You know what the result will be if I ship 
as a sailor and it is found out that I cannot per- 
form the work." That remark was irresistible 
to the captain. He told the boy to proceed to 
the cabin and sign the articles. That was done 



129 

as ordinary seaman. Soon busy with marlin- 
spike and line, he was seizing up some casks on 
deck. The old man was watching, and soon de- 
manded why the boy had lied so confoundedly. 
"Go back to the cabin," he said, **and cross out 
ordinary seaman and write able seaman instead." 
The old ship proved a very wet one. She was 
continually throwing green water over the decks. 
One day after she had dug her nose into a sea, 
filling her up to the rails, washing all the crew 
on deck aft to the lee-scuppers, an old lady pas- 
senger, who saw the men picking themselves up, 
after the water had run off, took from her cabin 
two bottles of brandy, and calling one of the men 
handed him the bottles, at the same time directing 
him to tell all the men to go immediately below, 
change their clothes, and drink some of the 
brandy, which would prevent them from taking 
cold. The brandy was taken with thanks; but 
the idea of the crew going below seemed ex- 
tremely funny to them. 

One day the boy was directed to get some white 
paint and paint under the skylight over the main 
saloon. There was a fine Wilton carpet on the 
floor of this room, therefore he started toward 
the sail locker. "Where are you going?" cried 
the mate. On replying that he was after an old 
sail to cover the carpet, he was told to proceed 
with the work, and that if he dropped any paint 



130 

severe punishment would be the result. The 
painting was done. Not a drop descended, but 
the execution was slow and a very dry brush was 
used. Why the officer gave such a command was 
incomprehensible. Such stunts, however, were 
often given and the men had to obey without de- 
murring. 

When near port at night, the boy noticed that 
the lookout was on top of the galley instead of 
being stationed by the nightheads, his proper po- 
sition. He told the man that if the officer found 
him there trouble would ensue. The bully replied 
that they were near the end of the run and the 
officer would not dare to interfere. Soon the sec- 
ond mate came forward, and noticing the man 
demanded that he go to the proper place. Re- 
ceiving a saucy answer, he removed his coat and 
catching the man by the heels pulled him off the 
galley with a bang and immediately proceeded to 
give him the punishment that was deserved, after 
which the fellow was meek enough to obey or- 
ders. Often the abuse of men at sea has been 
mentioned; but never, in the experience of the 
boy, has he ever observed any abuse that was not 
richly deserved. No man who willingly obeyed 
orders had any trouble. Only those who were 
morose, extremely dilatory, careless or saucy 
were made to toe the mark with blows of disci- 
pline. 



131 

The brig came gaily past the Heads into the 
splendid harbor of San Francisco, and on a bright, 
sunny day, the boy, now grown to man's estate, 
left the ship and landed on shore in the year 1866. 
His life that followed was the usual humdrum 
existence that obtains on shore, without events 
worthy of record, and thus he is left, with memo- 
ries of events that cause pleasure. Even the ex- 
treme hardships undergone are recalled as though 
they were the most enjoyable happenings of his 
experiences. 



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